Harry Steel Through Time part one: 1885-1890
by TheBlackHand724
Summary: In October of 2016 Cold hearted Unspeakable Harry Steel (Harry Potter) is tasked to find a missing unspeakable in the Nevada desert. Through a series of unfortunate events he and his friends end up marooned in 1885 where he learns how to be a better person. Period piece family story. T for some violence and language.
1. Chapter 1

AN: I wrote 95% of this story at the same time i wrote Investigator Harry Steel. i wanted to try my hand at a period piece. writing Harry Steel gave me a taste of research. what was around at the time? what did a new Ferrari cost in 2000? how much did cops make? things like that. i wanted to extend that so i wrote this as a challenge. i set the story in 1885 and every fact, wage, and dollar spent is as accurate as i could find. hours of research went in to this and i loved every minute of it. i never posted it because Investigator Steel took off and people liked the action more then the 'boring' everyday life stuff. i had 11 chapters. i took a few days and added a chapter to wrap it up and now i'm posting it. this story is not going to be for every one but if you found the 'boring' parts of Investigator Steel fun then this might be for you. either way give the first few chapters a read and see if you like it.

All questions about my stories are answered on my profile under the new update.

Harry looked down at his watch as the sunlight crested over the tops of buildings in the distance bringing some hope of warmth to the cold mid October air. He sat up in the lounge chair, cracked his neck, and rolled his shoulders. He pulled a Marlboro Red from a gold cigarette case and lit it with his gold zippo. As he took a deep drag he stood up from the lounge chair. He looked down at his black suit and waved his hand over himself to get the wrinkles out. He ran his hand over his face and felt the stubble of not shaving for two days. He looked over the balcony ten floors down and watched the busy street below. Traffic was light this time of the day but in a busy city like Moscow people never stopped moving. He bent down and grabbed the black Zojirushi bottle and took a sip of still warm coffee.

Harry saw movement in the hotel room across the street. A man in his late forties was walking around the big suite of rooms in bathrobe as two working girls got up and got dressed. Harry watched the two very expensive looking women in their mid twenties pull on lacey undergarments. He blinked and smiled, as he went back to looking at traffic again, this time he spotted three black Mercedes S550's rolling down the block and into the driveway of the building across the street. Harry checked his watch and nodded. 6am, the kid was telling the truth. Ten men dressed in black suits got out of the three black cars, four of the men were carrying two big black military style crates in pairs. Four other men had MP5Ks in hand as they walked into the lobby.

Harry put away his black thermos in his black leather messenger bag, hushed out the but of his cigarette, and picked up the Falkor Defence Petra rifle. He loaded up the magically expanded 100 round box mag, chambered the first magically enhanced .300 win mag round, and took a knee resting the Magpul angled fore grip on the balcony railing. He watched as the man in the apartment ushered the working girls back into the bedroom and told them something. They ran into the ensuite bathroom and the man opened the door to the room. The ten men came in starting with the four men with the guns, they checked the room and bedroom but not the bathroom. Sloppy, Harry thought as he shook his head. The four men with the black crates came in next and they were followed by a fat man and a tall man who never left the fat man's side. Harry watched the meeting through his magic scope. The men by the crates opened the lids to show off twenty gold bricks in each crate. The man in the robe pulled out a laptop and showed the fat man files on a computer. The men shook hands.

That's when Harry acted. Starting with the guys holding the submachine guns Harry dropped all of the men in the room except for the fat man and the man in the robe with nine perfect headshots in four seconds. The rifle made no sound and there was no flash. Most of the men in the room died before they even knew what was going on and the rest didn't know where the shots were coming from. The spent shell casings vanished before they could hit the ground. Harry stood and slung the rifle and his bag over his shoulder, drew the Sig p226 from his shoulder holster, and popped into the room with his gun trained on the fat man. He swept the room with his eyes and made sure all the men were dead before he advanced on the fat man. He grabbed his tie and turned his head to look at him.

"Hello Dimitri, what did i tell you last year about buying stolen British intel?" Harry asked in the tone of voice a school teacher uses on her unruly first grader.

"I'm sorry, i did not know he was British until i got here." The man said in a heavy Russian accent.

"I let you slide last time, i can't let you off the hook for this one." Harry said letting go of the man's tie and pointing his gun at his face.

"NO Wait! I have information, warehouses full of black market goods, military grade weapons, aircraft, and explosives!" He said.

"I cleaned out your warehouses three hours ago." Harry said.

"I know a man that can get you Russian ICMB!" The fat Russian said.

"Who the hell can't get their hands on one of those? Besides i've cut a deal with your nephew Anton already, he's my guy in the Bratva now." Harry said shrugging.

"I can give you! I can…" He ran out of steam as Harry's words sunk in. "Not the face, da?" he asked.

"Goodbye Demitri." Harry said shooting him three times in the chest before turning on the man in the bath robe who was trying to crawl over to the coffee table where one of the guys MP5Ks fell. "Really Nigel?" Harry asked shooting the man in the leg.

"Aaahh! I had to try." The man said rolling over holding his leg.

"Well don't. You're just going to make this hurt more. Now I'm guessing the files are on the laptop? Is that all of them, you know the drill. Talk or i hurt you." Harry said.

"The files are on that laptop. I have a backup drive in the bedroom taped under the nightstand drawer." He said.

"Thank you." Harry said pointing his gun at his head.

"Wait don't you want to know who the mole inside MI-5 is?" The man asked.

"How do you think i found you?" Harry said putting a bullet between his eyes. He shrank the two black crates, summoned all the guns off the ground into his bag and tossed the laptop inside. He walked into the bedroom and pulled the nightstand drawer out and flipped it over spilling the contents of the drawer, a gold watch and a big wad of Euros, on the floor. He took the flash drive and walked to the bathroom door. He knocked and heard the two girls cowering inside. "You two didn't see anything, you didn't hear anything, you were hired to do a job, you did it, and you left this morning. You know nothing." Harry said in Russian.

"Da." He got back.

"Good girls. I left money on the floor in the bedroom for you." Harry said before he popped back to the balcony across the street.

He shrank and summoned the three cars and popped away to a side street three blocks away. He walked to his BMW M3 and got in. He sank down in the leather seat as he pulled out his smartphone and called the office. Hermione's disheveled face came on the screen and that put a smile on his face.

"Hey Mia, how's life treating you? Wait isn't it like four in the morning there?" He asked.

"It is, i was working on something and lost track of time so i took a nap on my couch in the office. As for how we're doing, good for the most part, were swamped here dealing with that shipment you sent us three hours ago. That's what woke me. It took up most of the storage space when we started unpacking it." She said with a smile.

"Well it was four hangars full of inventory. Most of it is shit Russian military surplus AK47s and Makarov's, but there were a few nice things in there as well. That pair of SU-34s were nice. I kept the five crates of C-4, and a few of the crates of RPGs, but the rest of it is mostly junk. The black market booze and cigarettes are what was good." Harry said rubbing his face.

"You look tired Harry. Now i'm second guessing this next assignment, but i swear this is the last one for a few weeks. You need some down time. I wouldn't send you if it wasn't important." She said.

"I'm fine, i can rest when i'm dead. Where am i going next? Somewhere warm i hope." Harry asked.

"You're going to the America, to a location outside of Las Vegas. The local aurors called us to come investigate an old mineshaft. Something about missing local kids and glowing stones in the mine. The local Aurors looked at it but magic stops working in the the mine and the area around it for two hundred feet. It's an odd anomaly like a magical damping field. Research sent a new Unspeakable, Abbigale Gibson, to look into it. She's from America and tribal magic is one of her field of study. She was sent out a little over three days ago, she sent a short report telling her boss she met with the local aurors and she was going to go into the mine to investigate, and then nothing. She stopped reporting. The local Aurors can't find her. I need you to go find her. See what the hell is going on Harry. She's a 23 year old, good kid, but she's green." Hermione said looking worried.

"Send me the portkey and the file on her and anything else you can think of. I'm sending you the stolen intel. I'm using Portkey sticker 55183. Send me the files using portkey sticker 55184." Harry said taking out a gold business card holder and pulling a yellow circle sticker with a black number string printed across it on a white business card. He stuck the flash drive to the laptop, peeled the sticker off the business card and stuck it to the laptop.

"I'll do that, is there anything else you need?" She asked.

"Yeah, i can do with a full resupply. Extra fuel this time, i had to put Russian gas in my car and it's been running funny ever since. i'm going to have to use my Ferrari until i can flush out the system. Also if i have to use my chopper to do a search of the dessert it's going to burn a lot of fuel." Harry said.

"I'll send you a full care package, with three extra large fuel tanks, how's that?" She said.

"Good. love you sis, say hi your your husband for me. Where is my brother by the way?" Harry asked.

"Neville's in Spain, the seers predicted an assassination attempt on the magical spanish royal family." She said.

"You sent me to Russia in October and you sent your husband to Spain? How dare you i say! I think i will take that vacation after this mission." Harry said faking indignation.

"Suck it up you big baby. I'll see you after this." She said before the smile fell of her face. "Harry, find her please. She should never have been sent on a mission like this by herself. She has no field experience. She's straight out of her master study, and this was her fifth mission and first one off the island." Hermione said.

"I'll find her. See you later, and i love you sis." Harry said hanging up.

A minute later the Laptop on the seat next to him vanished. Harry stuck the next portkey sticker to the seat and pulled up a map of Moscow on his phone. He found an alley a few blocks away that would act as a good portkey location. He put away his phone and started his car. He winced as the car sputtered to life.

"Sorry buddy, i'll flush out your system later." He said as he pulled out into traffic and drove to the alley.

As he pulled into the alley a black file box landed on the passenger seat. Harry looked inside and saw an Unspeakable personnel file, two shrunken trunks the size of a small shoe box, a shot glass with dice on it that read Las Vegas and a sticker on the bottom that read Lady Luck, and two 100,000 liter gas tanks shrunken down to the size of water bottles. Harry smirked and transferred everything into his messenger bag. He shrank his BMW and put it in it's spot in his large gold pill box, and took the shot glass. He said "Lady Luck" and he vanished. He was flying through the air for almost a minute, when he landed he felt very sick. He reached into his bag and pulled out a bottle of japanese ginger soda, chilled it, and took a drink. He was in an alley next to a dumpster just off the strip. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it. It was dark but the lights on the strip lit up the city. He looked at his phone to figure out where he was. It was just after nine at night and the shift from Sunday morning Moscow to Saturday night in Vegas really messed with his internal clock.

He pulled out his black Ferrari 458 and got in. He pulled out of the alley and drove a few blocks away to the sheriff's office. He pulled into the lot and got out. He pulled a gold shield out of his bag and clipped it to his belt as he walked into the front door, and walked up to the fat desk sergeant dressed in a dark brown uniform shirt that was too tight and a red stain on his light brown tie.

"I'm agent Harry Steel from the DoM, i'm here to talk to Auror Green?" Harry said looking at the file to get the name right.

"Yeah, he's in the back through the red door. You need an escort?" The large lazy looking officer asked.

"No, i got it. Thanks." Harry said walking through the door to the back.

Harry nodded to officers as he went. He stopped off at the coffee machine and got a big cup of black dark roast and added ten packs of sugar. He found the red door and went through it. He saw a big room with a dozen desks and six men dressed in black uniforms with red ties. All eyes locked onto him when he came through the door.

"I'm looking for Auror Green?" Harry asked.

"That would be me. What can i do for you?" An older man in his sixties asked standing up from his desk. He had a black cowboy hat, a thick grey mustache, and thick coke bottle glasses.

"I'm agent Harry Steel from the DoM. We sent an Unspeakable your way about three days ago by the name of Abigail Gibson. Now she's missing and i'm here to find her." Harry said.

"Yeah, she came by about midday on Tuesday. I took her out to the mine and stayed with her as she did some scans of the area and what not. It was getting dark and i told her we should start heading back but she wanted to keep working. She said she had a tent and flood lights. She showed me the tent and when i was sure she would be fine i left. The next day i went back and found her working in the mine. I stayed out there for a bit but really i was just standing around doing nothing so i left. Yesterday i went back and i saw the tent still up, but she was nowhere to be seen. I called in the rest of the aurors and the deputies to help me search the mine from top to bottom but we couldn't find her and i mean not a trace. No remains or anything out of place she was just gone. That's when i called you folks.

"I see, did you pack up the tent?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, it's a normal camping tent. You want to see it?" The old auror asked.

"Yes please, did you find a black leather bag like this one by any chance?" Harry asked holding up his messenger bag.

"No, she had it on her when she was working but it was missing from the campsite." The old timer said as pulled the small rolled up piece of canvas out of an evidence box and set it on the ground in the open area of the office. He pulled a wand from the holster on his belt and waved it at the tent. The tent popped up and expanded to a six foot tall canvas walled tent.

Harry walked inside and saw the standard two bedroom tent. Every researcher had one, it was part of their normal kit. This one was very sparsely decorated. There were a few books on the coffee table and a wool blanket with native American pattern over the back of the brown leather couch. There was a dream catcher over the bedroom door. Orange and blue earthwear dishes in the cupboard but not much else. Either she just started decorating or she didn't spend too much time in here. In the second bedroom he found a study with more native American art. The book shelves on the right side of the room were full to the brim with books on tribal spells and medicine man potions, but also enchantments, curses breaking, and rituals. The books on the shelves on the left side were on history, science, math, literature. He referred back to the file and saw she had muggle degrees in History and archaeology and masteries in tribal spells, curse breaking, enchantments, and rituals. He spotted four black unspeakables trunks full of more books. On the desk he found a diary but it was blank meaning it was charmed with a password. The old Auror walked into the study behind him.

"Like i said there's not much here." He said.

"No there is not. So far everything checks out. I'm going to need to see the camp site and the mine." Harry said.

"You want to go out there now?" The Auror asked.

"If it's not too much trouble. This young girl has been gone for over thirty hours, she's most likely dead, but if she's not then she's out there alone, and hurt. This is her first real assignment, and her file shows no issued department firearms. The faster we find her the better." Harry said walking out of the tent and closing it when the Auror walked out behind him. Harry took the tent and put it in his bag.

"I understand, i can take you out there now. It's about a thirty minute drive out into the desert. The mine is in the middle of nowhere. It only fell in our lap because we're closer." He said walking to his desk to get his coat and keys.

"Why not use a portkey?" Harry asked following the old Auror out of the station.

"The magic gets confused by the damn mine. We tried using portkeys and we tried apparition. They don't work right when you get within a few miles of the mine. The portkey landed an Auror hard enough to break both his legs and apparition let's you off a few hundred feet above the ground." The old man said walking over to a black SUV.

"Hold on a second, let me get my car." Harry said running over to his Ferrari and shrinking it. He put it back in the gold case and ran back to the SUV.

"Unspeakable salary that good ha?" The old man said rolling out of the parking lot.

"No but then again i'm not a normal Unspeakable. The department is divided into two branches. The girl you met is a Researcher. A bookworm that studies the unknown. I'm an Operative. I handle threats. I took that car off a drug kingpin in Mexico. Anything we seize we can keep, the things we don't want get sent back to the department and the department sells it off. They use the cash made from the sale to help fund magical schools and hospitals around the world." Harry said looking over Abigail's file as they headed north out of the city and into the desert.

The file read like a lot of Researcher files. All O's in everything from the Salem institute. Two muggle degrees, and five magical masters in five years. Apprenticed under good masters. Got her black letter after Salem but chose to keep studying. Like most Unspeakables she was an orphan with no surviving family to speak of. That was good, he didn't feel like giving a death notice to next of kin. He would find her body, figure out what killed her, and take the body back to the office to be taken care of in her specified way in the contract and he would move on to the next assignment. It's why they gave him missions like this. Was it sad that this 23 year old girl was dead? Sure it was. But he didn't know her and everyone had to go sometime. Even the Flamel's died after five hundred years.

"So you're like a global cop?" The old auror asked.

"More like a magical CIA agent. We deal with people trying to upset the balance of the world and start magical world wars." Harry said looking at his watch. It was just after ten and as they got further away from the city it was getting darker and darker until Auror Green turned on the light bar on the top of his truck. At the speeds they were traveling the mine was about forty miles outside of the city. It really was in the middle of nowhere.

"Sounds like an exciting job." Green said trying to keep up the small talk.

"It has it's days. If there was a good way to describe the job it would be, travel the world, meet interesting people, then kill them. The upside is i'm always all over the world so i get a chance to buy things that are hard to get or super expensive at a huge discount. Take for instance this morning, i raided a warehouse full of black market goods and military surplus. I got two cases of Marlboro reds, four boxes of black Cuban cigars, a case of Johnny Walker Blue label, a case of Grey Goose, and a big tin of caviar. The crates of C4 and RPGs were nice as well." Harry said with a smirk.

"Nice haul. Were closing in on the mine and her camp site. See the lights." He said pointing to a spot a few miles off the road to the left.

"I see it. Is that the mine at the base of the rocky hill?" Harry asked as they turned off the road into the hard packed sand headed for the camp site.

"Yeah, Abby found the outside limit of the magical absorbing field. She marked it with red paint." He said stopping next to the crime scene tape stretched out between the poles of a half dozen magical flood lights stuck in the ground. Harry got out of the SUV and was hit with a cold breeze. He pulled a black trench coat out of his bag and pulled it on over his thin suit jacket.

"There is definitely bad JuJu in the air. This suit's warming charm works up to almost freezing. I slept outside last night in Moscow. You said this is the line she marked in the sand?" Harry said pointing out the red line made with surveyors paint.

"Yeah, anything magical inside that line gets out of whack." Green said.

"Well, i think the line has moved out. We're inside it now." Harry said holding out his hand. He started walking backwards and when he got two hundred feet away his hand lit up. "The line is back here now." Harry said.

"The damping field is growing. What does that mean?" Green asked looking worried.

"Look, i'm not sure. I'm not a researcher, i was sent here to find an Unspeakables body, and kill whatever got her. But what i can tell you, is whatever this is, it's not good. On the upside my bag worked so it doesn't stop all magic. Let's see if this works." Harry said pulling his Sig 226 out and walking forward into the field. He pulled the trigger and the hammer clinked down but the gun didn't fire. "That's what i thought." Harry said walking backwards out of the field.

"Thought what?" The auror asked pulling his truck back to get out of the bubble.

"My enchanted guns don't work and i don't want to break them so i'm not going to use them inside the damping field." Harry said as he put his gun in his bag and pulled out one of the Russian's Glock 19s and tucked it into his shoulder rig. He pulled out the six glocks, took the full magazines out, and tossed the guns back in his bag. He did the same with the MP5Ks. He slung the submachine gun over his shoulder and put the longer mags in his inside coat pocket.

"What do you want to do now?" Green asked.

"I'm going to make a call, and get back up here to check out that mine." Harry said pulling out his phone and the calling the office. Hermione's face popped up on screen looking tired.

"Yes Harry?" She asked.

"Mia, this magical disruption field is growing and it gives me the creeps. Something's not right with this one. I want you and Neville to come here now." Harry said.

"Okay, um Neville's on assignment remember?" She said.

"I don't care send someone else to take his place. This feels wrong. My enchanted guns don't work but my bag does. The warming charm on my over coat works but the one on my suit doesn't. The whole area feels off. Dark and cold and wrong. When you get here you'll understand what i'm talking about. I'm going to take a ride away from the bubble and set up a portkey. I'll have an Auror waiting to bring you to me, i'm going to walk around a bit and get a feel for the place. But i can tell you this now, something's not right." Harry said.

"Relax Harry, i'll get everything ready on my end. I'm guessing your going to use the next two portkey stickers in that same line?" She asked.

"Yes. Bring your full kit and muggle stuff too. Like i said some stuff works and some stuff doesn't. Bring a few of the black market guns, and some regular flashlights." Harry said.

"Okay, we'll be there in about a half hour. Wait until we get there to go in." She said before she hung up.

"I heard most of that. You think the portkey will work out here?" Green asked walking up to Harry.

"These will. They're paired portkeys." Harry said pulling out his card holder and taking the next two cards out and handing them to the Auror. "I need you to do me a favor. Take these two cards a few miles away and stick the yellow stickers to the ground. You got an extra flashlight?" Harry asked.

"Yeah. Here take mine." Green said handing him the big Maglite off his belt as he got in his SUV.

When he was gone Harry turned on the light and walked around the bubble to the rocky hill that jutted out of the ground thirty feet forming the mouth of the mine shaft. The closer he got to the mine shaft the worse the cold feeling got. He walked back to the spot he started and saw the SUV heading back. When it stopped Hermione and Neville hopped out they were both wearing black suits and over coats. They also had their thicker combat dragonhide vest on over their shirts. They had their black messenger bags and Ak47's over their shoulders.

"That was quick." Harry said hugging them. It had been more than three months since the last time he saw them and he missed them both. He pulled out his combat vest and put it on over his shirt before pulling his suit jacket and overcoat back on.

"Neville walked into the office right after you hung up. So this is the mine?" Hermione said passing Harry a super bright small headlamp and a small tactical flashlight. Harry handed the maglite back to the Auror and put the headlamp on.

"Yes, take a few steps towards it and see what i'm talking about." Harry said. Hermione walked up to the bubble and stopped short.

"Oh, this feels bad Harry. We need to see what the hell is causing this." She said.

"Let me lead. We're all set Auror Green, if you don't hear from us by morning call the office and have them send out a full team." Harry said shaking the old Auror's hand.

"I'm going to stay here in my truck until you guys come out. Good luck you three." He said.

"Well lead the way Harry." Neville said nodding to his brother.

Harry pulled up the MP5K, flipped out the shoulder stock, and turned on his head lamp. The other two did the same thing. Harry walked forwards through the bubble and headed for the mine. The closer he got the colder he felt but he knew the temperature hadn't change. He walked into the mine and almost immediately felt the floor slope down and curve around in a spiral as it went down.

"Watch your step the mine is steep." Harry said.

"We're right behind you." Hermione said. As they started to descend into the mine they noticed the glowing red stone running through the walls in veins throwing off enough light to give the mine a red glow.

"This is not normal." Neville said.

"No it's not." Harry agreed.

They walked a for a few more minutes and at this point they knew they were deep under ground. They came to their first major cut in. It was a large cavern about fifty foot across with a fifteen foot roof supported by large tree trunk beams. Harry looked around the room and spotted movement in the corner of the ceiling. He tilted his head around the beam and saw a huge red and black spider. It's body was the size of a garbage can lid and it had big pincers around it's mouth full of spiked teeth. A soon as he saw it he hit it with a short burst from his gun. The rounds impacted and blasted the spider off the wall. It landed on the ground and it's legs curled up. Hermione and Neville stuck their heads into the room.

"Big fucking spider." Neville said getting the hebegebees at the sight of it.

"That's not an acromantula." Hermione said.

"Wait, do you hear that?" Harry said waving at the two to be quite. He heard it again. It was above him. He pointed up and shouldered his gun. They all turned their heads up and saw a dozen big spiders on the ceiling. They all fired at the spiders as they dropped from the ceiling. They got half of them but the ones that made it to the ground ran at them hissing and snapping. Harry and Neville sprayed the six spiders on the ground and they kept firing until their guns ran dry.

"I think you boys got them." Hermione said.

"I hate spiders." Harry said pulling the spent mag from his gun and putting in a fresh one.

Neville followed his lead. As they crossed the room and entered the next tunnel heading down. A few minutes of walking with the boys scanning the ceiling of the tunnel for more spiders. Harry stopped short.

"You hear that? It sounds like rushing water." Harry said.

"And squeaking." Hermione added.

"It's coming from up ahead and it's getting louder." Neville added.

Harry turned the corner and saw a swarm of rats around something. Harry stepped back, pulled a flash bang out of his bag and held it up to show the other two. They closed their eyes and held their ears. Harry pulled the pin and tossed the flashbang around the corner. He held his ears and closed his eyes but he still saw the flash and his ears had that bell ringing sound. He turned the corner and saw the rats run into holes in the floor exposing the dead body of an older man dressed in jeans and a blue t-shirt. There was a discarded mining helmet and a pickax near by. The wall showed signs of damage and there were small bits of glowing red stone on the floor. The man's flesh was mostly chewed off but the bullet wound to the head was clear as day. The rats didn't kill this man they just feast on the leftovers.

They continued down the tunnel and came to their first junction point. They came to a flat spot that went into two different directions and a tunnel heading down across from them. Harry turned to ask them which way they wanted to go when he stopped in his tracks. Turning his head flashed his light down the left tunnel and he saw movement. He looked at Neville and held up a finger. He pointed down the left side and turned back that way. Neville came to stand next to him and they walked down the hall until they came to a bigger hollowed out room with a door on the other side. Harry looked left and Neville looked right, both of them saw something different.

Harry saw a confederate soldier with half his flesh missing charging at him with a calvalry saber out. Harry brought his MP5K up and hit the zombie with a short burst of six rounds that tore the soldier's chest open. Neville saw a fresher zombie cowboy walking at him with a Colt peacemaker in his limp hand. The zombie fired once missing way off to the left as Neville shoulder his rifle and hit him with a short burst of three rounds to the chest. They both looked at each other for a second before having to turn back to their zombies who were moving again. Harry switched to semi auto and put a round through his zombie's head which stopped it dead. Neville did the same.

"So head shots from now on." Harry said as Hermione came through the door with her rifle up.

"WHat's going on?" She asked seeing the two dead bodies.

"Zombies." Harry said approaching his zombie. He nudged him over with his foot and picked up the saber off the ground. "This guy came from the civil war i think. He's in good nick for someone that old." Harry said pulling the metal scabbard and belt off the corps and put it on around his over coat.

"Harry did you just rob a dead guy?" Hermione asked.

"He's not going to need it and if we run out of ammo a good sword will come in handy for chopping off zombie heads." Harry said taking the gun belt and the colt off the other zombie. "Here Nev. it's a nice belt and gun. And the bullet loops are almost full." Harry said handing his brother the gun belt.

"We're not going to run out of ammo, we're carrying a dozen shrunken ammo cans full of 7.62x39. What the hell is going on with this mine." Hermione asked as a third zombie came stumbling out of the door on the other side of the room. This one was another cowboy with two guns. She hit it with a short burst dropping it to the ground. Neville took the colt out of the holster and put a bullet in it's head as it started to get back up.

"You have to hit them with head shots to put them down." Neville said.

"Well we're at an impasse, do we continue down zombie lane or try the other side and see where it takes us?" Harry asked taking the gun belt off the new crops and handing it to Hermione with the two colts. She shook her head but Harry gave her a 'don't be a pain look and she buckled the gun belt around her waist and shrank it to fit.

"Let see what's back the other way but one of us has to keep an eye out behind us for the walking dead." Neville said turning around and heading back down the tunnel they came from.

Harry followed but he kept looking back to make sure nothing was following them. They headed down the other tunnel and found piles of red stone that glowed bright enough to see without the headlamps give and the tunnel a odd red hue. They came to another big room but this one was a dead end. But they found the half eaten bodies of five teenagers being chewed on by three dead saloon girls. The boys took out the dead women with three head shots. Hermione was horrified for a second before her brain kicked in she looked at the open chest cavities of the teens and saw that while their flesh was ripped off by teeth their hearts were cut out cleanly.

"These kids were killed and their hearts were cut out. This looks like it might have been a part of some dark ritual. Let's head back that way." She said.

"Great, through the zombies." Harry muttered leading the way.

In the tunnel he saw two more shambling confederates. He dropped them both with head shots and took the swords and belts and passed them to his friends. Hermione rolled her eyes when he handed her the sword but she put the belt on. They advanced into the room where they killed their first three zombies and found six more. Three cowboys, a barmaid and two more confederates. Harry again dropped them all with head shots he took the double gun belt of one of the cowboys and took the guns off the two others and added them to his bag.

"Will you stop looting the zombies!" Hermione shouted in a hushed whisper.

"Have you never played a video game or seen an action movie? You always loot your kills." Harry said leading them through the back door way and down another tunnel.

"I get it. Pass me that's nickle plated Smith and Wesson Schofield." Neville said making Harry laugh as he handed over the shiny silver gun.

As they walked down this tunnel they heard chanting. There was another chamber. This one was lit by torches on the wall. In the center of the room was an alter. A man dressed like an indian with a feathered headdress and warpaint was chanting and dancing. Laying on the altar was a naked blonde woman. She looked knocked out or dead. She was tied to the altar and her eyes were closed. Around her were candles and the five missing hearts. The back wall of the room had a jagged tear in it and that's where the zombies were coming from. Harry fired three times into the side wall stopping the indian from chanting. The man turned to him as Neville and Hermione dropped the three zombies that came through the rip.

"Hands up, step away from the blonde and kindly explain what you're doing." Harry said as six zombies came through the rip and Harry had to turned to help kill them.

"I am finishing a ritual my ancestors started a long time ago. The white man took our land, killed our children and rapped our women. This is how you'll pay for it!" He said pulling a knife from his belt and cutting open his chest.

"Hermione can i just shoot this guy?" Harry asked.

"I don't know Harry!" She said as a second portal opened opened next to the zombie portal.

"Now it all ends!" the indian yelled turning to stab the blonde, that's when Harry shot him in the back of the knees dropping the man to the floor. "NO! My people will be free!" He yelled plunging the knife through his own chest. Harry ran up to the table and cut the blonde loose with his new sword. She was unconscious, but alive. The two portals colessed in the center of the wall and they pulsed with power. Then they exploded bathing them in red light. Harry thought they were all going to die but when the light faded they were standing in the room alive.

"Um guys, Are we dead?" Harry asked holding the naked blonde to his chest.

"I don't think so. Hey look, the walls stopped glowing." Neville said.

"And the cold feeling has faded. Also our indian friend is gone. So are the hearts and the zombies." Hermione said looking around the room.

But we still have the guns and gun belts and their are guns on the floor. Grab those Nev." Harry said.

"Good call." Neville said finding a Lemat revolver.

"You two are the worst." Hermione said casting a few spells on the walls.

"Well let's get out of here and call in a team to investigate this. Hermione can you help me with this girl, i'm guessing this is Abby?" Harry asked looking down at beautiful young woman in his arms.

"Yes that's her, her things are over here. Why don't you set her back down and you two turn around while i get her up and dressed." Hermione said as she grabbed Abby's bag and her cut up clothes as Harry set her on the altar again.

Hermione hit the girl with an enervate and when she came to her head shot up and she let out a scream.

"Relax! You're safe." Hermione said covering her with her undamaged coat.

"What happened?" She asked looking confused and disoriented.

"We were hoping you could tell us. Let's fix your clothes and get you dressed." Hermione said helping her off the stone table.

"Wait! The guy, the Washoe indian. He's opening a portal to another dimension!" she said looking around the room.

"He's dead. We stopped him." Hermione said helping her put on her undergarments, black skirt, and white blouse.

"Good, if he succeeded in even the slightest way he would have altered the timeline forever." Abby said putting on her black low heeled pumps.

"Wait, define a little bit because he was pretty far into the chanting and cutting and stabbing part." Harry said turning around to look at her. She was tall and thin but well proportioned and her cold blue eyes had a look of intelligence about them. When she stood up she had a grace to her movements like a dancer. She reminded him of someone famous, and when she turned to the and pick up her bag it clicked for him. She looked like Taylor Swift.

"That's not good. Was there a rip in the fabric of reality?" She asked.

"Two of them, one was spewing zombies, and the other one was just taking shape the two rips combined and then exploded." Hermione explained.

"Oh god." Abby said looking like she was going to faint.

"Oh god what?" Harry asked.

"He completed the ritual!" She said.

"No he was going to stab you and i shot him, he did stab himself however." Harry said.

"I don't know what happened but something must have changed. The ritual was complete. Not as intended but still complete. What you just described is a planes walker ritual. We have to get out of here and see what's different." Abby said slinging her bag over her shoulder.

"Alright, let me and Nev. lead us out." Harry said nodding to his brother as he changed mags and started out the tunnel.

It took them fifteen minutes to get out of the mine because they took their time and looked for any more spiders, rat, or the walking dead but they ran into nothing. When they did make it out they didn't see the black SUV, or the lights with the police tape, or Auror Green. Harry looked around before shrugging.

"I wonder where he went?" Harry said pulling out his pill box. He pulled out his lifted black Jeep Rubicon. "Come on let's go." Harry said. As they loaded up into his big truck. Harry started the truck, and flipped on the big overhead light bar and the high beams. He turned to get back to the road and headed that way. After a minute he didn't see the road. He stopped and scratched his chin.

"Something wrong Harry?" Neville asked from the passenger seat.

"Where's the road?" Harry asked.

"Isn't it up a bit?" Neville asked looking out in front of the jeep.

"I have to check something real quick. Stay in the car." Harry said getting out. He pulled his firebolt broom from his bag and took off into the air.

He climbed up to a few hundred feet and looked to the south. Nothing. No lights. Just dessert, and darkness. He went higher. Still nothing. Then he caught a glimmer of light in the distance up north more than three hundred miles away. The light coming from the town was so small it made him feel sick to his stomach. He dropped down and landed next to his car. He put away his broom and got back in the jeep.

"What's going on Harry?" Neville asked.

"Well, there's good news and there's bad news. The good news is i didn't see any more zombies and we're facing the wrong direction and that's why we didn't see anything. The bad news is there is no Las Vegas." Harry said rubbing his head.

"What do you mean there is no Las Vegas?" Neville asked.

"You know, big city full of lights and sin? Yeah, it's not there. From what i saw the only thing close by is a mining town back that way. You know, because it's not 2016 anymore." Harry said looking at the girls in the back seat.

"Well, we wanted to know what changed." Abby said looking sad.

"But if it's not 2016 then what the hell is it?" Neville asked.

"My guess, some time after the civil war." Harry said holding up his saber.

"We need to know for sure." Hermione said.

"I agree. Let's fly to the big town i saw and stop a few miles away. I'll go fly in under my cloak and get a feel for the place. The problem is it's about 300 miles from here and i don't know if you guys feel like flying that far on a broom when it's just above freezing out there. So what i can do is make a set of paired portkeys, do the trip myself, and you can just pop over. Our phones still work right?" Harry asked.

"They should, they work on magic not satellite tech." Hermione said pulling out her phone and calling Harry. His phone vibrated and he answered to see if the connection was good. Which it was.

When he got the Okay. He got out of the car, picked up two rocks they flashed blue and he handed one to Neville. He pulled out his broom and took off again. This time he pulled a black scarf out of his bag and wrapped it around his head before he really started moving. It took Harry almost an hour flying at top speed but he finally made it to the town with the lights. He was right, it looked like a mining town. He pulled on his invisibility cloak and did a quick scan of the town of about a thousand people. The light was coming from street lights made of lanterns and there were horses, buggies, and wagons in the dirt roads. It was close to two in the morning and the only place that still had life was the saloon and even they were closing up shop. Harry glided down to a man walking down the street away from everyone. He grabbed the man and pulled him behind a building. He pulled the cloak off and drew the colt from the holster still around his waist and pressed it to his head.

"What year is it?" He asked.

"18… um. 1885. Please mister, don't shoot me." The man said.

"I'm not going to shoot you, i'm just used to talking to people at gunpoint. What is today's date and the name of this town?" Harry asked.

"It's Saturday night, mid October i think, this here town is Eureka." The man said looking confused.

"One last question, has there been anything strange going on in or around town?" Harry asked.

"No, i mean besides you holding me up." The man said.

"Thank you for your time. I need you to look at my finger." Harry said holding up his index finger. A white light flashed from it and Harry pulled on his cloak as the man blinked and continued to walk back to his house.

Harry saw that he was standing behind a clothing shop and unlocked the back door with a wave of his hand. He ghosted into the shop and took a white shirt, brown pants, a brown three quarters length suit jacket, a red ascot, and a pair of brown riding boots. He took one of the gold bars he got from the the Russians and cut off a small nugget. He left the gold on the counter and vanished out the back door. He flew out of town about a mile to a big pile of boulders and called Hermione.

The group portkeyed to him and Harry pulled out a black cube from his bag. He set it on the ground and put his thumb on the top. It expanded to a six foot black cube with a door. Harry lead them into a huge house. The cube was not new to the Operatives. They each had one but Harry put a lot of time and magic into his cube. The six by six foot outside space was expanded into a 3600 square foot four bedroom five bathroom home decorated in the georgian style. Once they were all in he hit the rune by the door to shrink and cloak the cube. They all sat in the dining room looking at Harry.

"It's Saturday night mid October 1885. We're in Eureka Nevada. And so far according to the drunk i accosted nothing strange has happened. I think we might have just gone back in time." Harry said.

"If that's true we're stuck here." Hermione said rubbing her forehead.

"What do you mean stuck here? Can't we do a ritual or something and get back?" Neville asked.

"No. If we did go back in time it means we erased the future or we jumped to a parallel dimension. Either way we're stuck. You can play with time but not that much. Going back is easy. A kid with a time turner can go back but hopping forwards is not a thing you can just do. We can't go forwards because the world is being written as we live it." Hermione said.

"Well shit." Harry said scratching his chin.

"That sums it up nicely." Neville said.

"Well on the up side we don't have to go to work, the Department of Mysteries won't be formed for another 45 years." Abby said laughing nervously.

"Well i was owed some vacation days anyways and on the up side we are rich. I have two crates of gold on me plus whatever else we have with us." Harry said.

"Gold is not worth as much as it was back in our time. The price of gold was fixed at $23 or something like that at this time. A gold brick is 400 ounces so you're looking at $9,200 per brick. The good news is the average worker makes about $2 a day and you can buy the nickel plated colt peacemaker you have in that gun belt for about $25." Abby said.

"Then we're still rich. There were twenty bars in each box. That's like $368,000. We can buy this state for that price. And that's if we stay here. Who want's to go see London? We can still catch Jack the Ripper i think." Harry said with a smirk.

"How are you excited? We're stuck in 1885 you dumb ass!" Hermione said.

"Hermione think about it. We can change history. All we have to do is kill three babies and the world would be a better place. Tom Riddle, Albus Dumbledore, and Gerrit Grindelwald. That's the worst dark lords of the next 130 years." Harry said.

"Not Hitler?" Neville asked with a smirk.

"Naw, he's a pushover. It was Grindelwald that was pulling the strings. He was the architect of the holocaust." Harry said waving her off.

"You're still sore about the old man using you as a sacrificial lamb and a piggy bank?" Hermione asked.

"You're damn right i am. I have half a mind to go home to England, find Dumbledore's father and shoot him in the face." Harry said jokingly before he stopped short. "Hey that's not a bad idea. It's cleaner too. I've never killed a baby before but a random guy? Sure. It's what i get paid to do." Harry said.

"You know you might be onto something Harry. I mean who says we have to sit on our hands and do nothing? The paired portkey won't be invented for another seventy plus years meaning things have to be shipped everywhere by boat and train. Think about the damage we could do if we open an import export shipping business. One trip to London by plane and we can ship boat loads of cargo to the states in seconds." Neville said.

"Now you're thinking Nev. I like that. What do you say to Potter and Longbottom shipping?" Harry asked waving his hand like he was picturing the sign on a building.

"I think you both need to go by you're Unspeakable covers. There's already Potters and Longbottoms in the world and even if we make waves we can't mess with our family lines. So Blackwell and Steel Shipping." Hermione said mocking his hand gesture as she rolled her eyes.

"Hey Harry, we got enough fuel to make a flight across the Atlantic?" Neville asked.

"We do, Hermione sent me two big gas tanks and a full resupply right before i came to America. In fact i still have to flush out the cheap Russian gas from my M3. Speaking of cars maybe we should take stock in what we have." Harry said.

"Good idea, start with that black hole you call a mission bag." Hermione said.

"I have no idea what's in here. I'm almost afraid to dump it out." Harry said standing up and taking off his bag. He held it open over the table and things started tumbling out. Soon the big 8x4 foot dining room table was piled 3 foot high with shrunken stuff.

"Jesus Harry, do you ever clean out your bag." Hermione asked picking up a half eaten candy bar and tossing it at Harry who caught it and expanded it.

"No, i'm too busy. For the last ten years I've had maybe a hundred days off." Harry said.

"Well lets see what we're working with. We need a room to store all this stuff. Why don't you find a place in this big ass house where we can store things while we go over this stuff and inventory it." Hermione said pulling a small shrunken trunk out of her bag. She expanded it and pulled out a hand full of shrunken trunks.

"Is that a trunk full of shrunken trunks?" Harry asked.

"Yes, all Researchers have one, we're taught to keep things organized. Something you Operatives never got the memo on. And don't smirk Neville were dumping out your bag next." Hermione said opening the empty trunks next to the table.

"Nerd." Harry muttered walking away as he took a bite out of the half eaten candy bar "Hey it's still good!" He said.

Harry cleaned out the smallest bedroom by shrinking the furniture and setting it on the bookcase in the corner. When he came back to the dining room the table was barely touched and Hermione was keeping track of things on a clipboard as Neville and Abby were stacking things in trunks.

"How's it going?" Harry asked.

"Good, we might be able to live off the junk in your bag for the next ten years." Hermione said.

"Well you guys look like you're all set. I'm going to go cook dinner." Harry said walking out of the room only to come back through the door a second later. "Abby you don't have any food issues right?" He asked.

"None, i'll eat pretty much anything. I had a meal bar in the car a bit ago but i'm still super hungry." She said.

"Good." Harry said walking out.

"I Still can't believe that's Harry Steel. And i can't believe Harry Steel is Harry Potter. You know girls in the Research department read his mission summaries to each other as fanfiction right? He's so cool and awesome in the files." She said with a blushing smile.

"Well keep that kind of stuff to yourself. Harry hates people fawning over him. And i told those girls to stop doing that." Hermione said.

"We only do it when you're not in the room. Silvia said you knew Harry Steel, and you stopped them from fantasizing about him so you could keep him all to yourself. Of course Silvia is a fat cow and a mean bitch so what does she know. Now on to the more important question, is he single?" Abby asked adjusting the small reading glasses on the end of her nose and she looked at a small diamond ring.

"Not that i know of, he keeps that stuff to himself. Then again, seeing as we're in 1885, if there was a Mrs. Steel she's out of the picture now. Neville, is Harry seeing someone?" Hermione asked.

"Nope, not since that blonde in Paris. What's her name? The the french spy." Neville said.

"Sophie Martin. Magical branch of the DGSE." Hermione said nodding.

"So he likes blondes?" Abby asked with a smile.

"Harry likes women that are breathing. You peak his interest and he's on you." Neville said.

"How can i do that?" She asked.

"You already have. You're the only woman in this time period that bathes everyday and shaves her legs. Trust me you have a leg up on every other woman around. Now can we please get back to work? Hearing you two 'girl talk' is slowing us down and i want to get done. I need a hot meal and a bed. I've been going for two days straight." Neville said yawning.

"Sorry Nev." Hermione said kissing him as she went back to work cataloging things off the table.

An hour later Harry came into the dining room with two plates loaded with chicken tacos, rice and beans in his hands. The table was mostly cleared off except for a line of shrunken vehicles. There were 58 cars, 6 bikes, 5 boats, and even a small private jet. Harry set the plates down and walked out to get the next two. He set them down and went back for four sets of silverware, napkins, four bottles of beer and a bottle of hot sauce. He sat at the head of the table where they left a space open for him. When he sat down he saw Abby was making her way through her first taco. He shared a smirk with Hermione and Neville.

"Abby, since you started first i'll let you say grace." Harry said stopping her mid bite.

"Um, sorry, um i didn't mean to. Oh God." She said blushing bright red that's when Neville lost it which sent Harry and Hermione over the edge. "WHat?" Abby asked looking indignant.

"You have to learn to relax Abs. We're life long friends and i know that can feel a bit daunting for you but we're the only four people in this boat together and that means you have to get used to us. We all met first year of Hogwarts and we've been friends ever since. In sixth year we took a forced camping trip to find and kill pieces of a dark lord's soul. Our other friend Ron flaked on us and left us for dead. That's when the three of us became family. That was what? Close to twenty years ago." Harry said digging into his plate.

"The summer of 1997. 19 years ago. My God we were all so young back then. Fighting a grown up war with kid's spells and old guns we found in a trunk in my parent's basement." Hermione said looking wistful.

"We're still young. We're powerful magicals, we're in the mage level on the Merlin scale. We'll live another 110 years easy, 140 if we take care of ourselves." Harry said said with a smile.

"Speaking of living that long, you had 12 crates of MREs in your bag. Not cases mind you crates. That's 480 MREs. Those things have a long shelf life but it's not forever." Hermione said.

"Really?" Harry asked scratching his chin.

"Yes really, they were stored in a black supply box." Hermione said looking at the list on her clipboard. "Do you ever eat them?" she asked.

"Only when i can't get anything good or i can't cook my own meals. Every full resupply comes with a crate of them." Harry said with a shrug. "What else was in the bag anything good?" Harry asked.

"Well there was a lot. Let's just run down the list. Did you know that your bag was full of loaded guns, most of them cocked without the safeties on?" Hermione asked with a smile.

"I mean, i kind of figured as much. Half the time i clear a room i just summon the guns off the ground into the bag. What are we looking at in terms of numbers?" Harry asked.

"Well, we unloaded all of them and separated the guns from the ammo." She said pointing to the stack of shrunken black trunks that were stacked on the floor. "We have a magically expanded trunk full to the top of loose 9mm rounds. We have a trunk half full of loose .223 ammo. A trunk a third of the way full of .45acp. And we have a trunk full of ammo boxes packed with calibers like 7.62x51, .380acp, .357 magnum, and .308 match grade." She said pointing out the tagged trunks.

"Wow, and that was all from unloading guns that were just laying around in my bag?" Harry asked.

"Yes. The guns are in those seven trunks." She said.

"So we have enough guns and ammo to arm a good sized military?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Yes, now let's talk about the safe way to store explosives and incendiary ammunition." Hermione said.

"What now?" Harry asked laughing.

"Bricks of C4, semtex, crates of frag grenades and flash bangs. Aircraft ordnance shrunken down in old wood boxes. You had six crates of hellfire missiles in in an ammo can along with a hundred shrunken belts of 50 cal aircraft ammo. If one of those things went off in your bag it would have leveled a few dozen city blocks." She said.

"That's not cool." Harry said. "Was there anything good in there besides all the dangerous things that go boom?" Harry asked.

"Let's see. You had 2,750 rounds of enchanted 9mm hollow points, 1,600 rounds of enchanted .223, 1,400 rounds of enchanted .300 win mag, 1,050 enchanted 12 gage buckshot shells, and 675 rounds of enchanted .500 nitro express. You also have ammo cans full of regular bulk NATO ammo. You have about 280,000 liters of gas thanks to the tanks i sent you and a few dozen gas tanks we found with small bits of fuel left at the bottom of the tank. Also we found a whole trunk worth of random jewelry and bricks of cash. You also had a bunch of perishable goods like boxes of candy bars, bags of beef jerky, and cans of soda. You also had a bunch of luxury items like cases of cigarettes, bottles of booze, and boxes of cigars. Normally this is where i would tell you you have a problem but seeing as we ended up a 130 years in the past i'm going to let your hoarder like need to loot your kills and buy in bulk go for now." Hermione said looking at the three page long list of junk they found.

"So this is what an intervention feels like." Harry said smirking.

"Harry we love you but your need to rob from the people you kill is getting out of hand." Neville said in a serious tone.

"You don't get to talk Mr. half full magazines. My husband had half the amount of magical ammo you had in half empty magazines." Hermione said.

"Changing mags during a firefight is something we were taught to do." Neville defended. "And thanks to us we have all this to work with. The only thing in your bag was a trunk full of trunks and those magical food bars." Neville said.

"True, i do feel like i came to a potluck without a pot." Hermione said.

"At least you had all that AK47 ammo and guns and stuff. I literally only have books, some MREs, and a trunk full of trunks." Abby said.

"Don't feel too bad about it. You're normal. I am not. On the up side if i ration out my cigarettes i can keep smoking Marlboro Reds until the company starts making them again." Harry said pulling out his gold cigarette case taking out a cigarette.

"Please can you not smoke that in this room?" Hermione asked.

"Okay. Oh, i forgot to add my mission vehicles. I have my 2015 BMW M3, 2015 Jeep Rubicon, 2013 Ferrari 458, 2009 Mercedes e500, 1986 Buick GNX, and my 1969 Boss 302 Mustang. I also have my Ducati Scrambler, and my 23 foot Hacker craft gentlemen's racer speed boat." Harry said opening his gold pill box to show off his cars. "Also don't forget the aircraft. i have my P-51 Mustang, my F5-E, and my Gazelle helicopter." He added lifting out the tray to show off the shrunken aircraft.

"With your two planes, the Learjet from your bag, and Neville's Spitfire, Hawk 200 fighter jet, and his Gazelle we have air travel covered." Hermione said marking it down on the list.

"Oh i forgot i have my car with me. Add a yellow 2010 Corvette Z06 to the list." She said pulling the shrunken car out of her jacket pocket.

"Nice. You're a speed freak?" Harry asked.

"Not really. It was my grandfather's car. He loved it almost as much as he loved me. He died five years ago and left the car to me." She said smiling a sad smile as she looked at the matchbox sized car in her hand.

"Sorry to hear about that. Maybe we can buy some land in the middle of nowhere and build a track so we can take our cars out for a spin. For now i guess we're going to have to stick to horses but that's going to be inconvenient. If we're constantly going to be on the move building up our Shipping company then taking care of a horse is going to be tough." harry said.

"I may have a solution to that, let me look into it. But i think we need to take a few weeks and figure out what we're doing here. Are we going to stay out here in the middle of nowhere? Are we going to move to a big city? Are we going to attempt a trip to the UK? These are all things we have to figure out. Also, as normal as things seem here, we have to make sure none of those zombies came through into this time. If they did we have to stop it, it's on us after all." Hermione said.

"Well i think we need to hit the sack for now. It's close to four in the morning and I've been up for the last three days straight." Harry said vanishing the empty plates and collecting the silverware. He walked into the kitchen and dumped it in the sink, when he came back out Hermione and Neville were gone.

"They said they were going to bed in the blue room." Abby said finishing her beer and vanishing the empty bottle.

"Then that means you're in the gold room. Let me show you to your room." Harry said leading her out of the dining room and down a hall passed the living room. He stopped at a door and opened it showing her a white room with big gold furniture. There was a big king size bed with a gold headboard and white bedding. Gold nightstands, a gold and white fainting couch, and a gold writing desk with a gold and white chair.

"It's a bit…" She paused to come up with a good word to describe the room.

"Gaudy? Ridiculous? Overly flashy? Yes it's all of that. I took this furniture from a drug kingpin. It's where i got my Ferrari. It looks a bit flashy but the bed is super soft and the sheets are Egyptian cotton." Harry said walking to the door on the other side of the room. "This is the bathroom. It's white marble and gold to keep up the theme. You can open your tent over here and get your things or you can stay in your tent, it's up to you. I'm in the bedroom at the end of the hall if you need anything and Hermione and Neville are next door. See you in the morning." Harry said walking to the door.

"Harry, i just wanted to say thank you for coming to rescue me, and also thank you for your hospitality. I know i'm an outsider for now, but i hope that one day soon i'll be a part of your family too. It's like you said we're stuck together." Abby said with a awkward smile.

"Relax Abs, you're fine. Now get some rest." Harry said closing the door behind him as he walked out of her room.

Harry entered his room which was painted dark green and had big dark wood furniture. There were swords and antique flintlock guns on the walls and a six foot stuffed dragon's head on the wall over the fireplace. Harry took a hot shower and passed out on his big four post bed. As he drifted off a thought hit him. For the last twenty years he always had something to do. A job or task to complete. For the first time in a long time he didn't have shit to do tomorrow.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: this chapter sums up the story feel better then the first chapter did. if you like this chapter then this might be your story. if you find it boring the next story is going to be for you. imagine this Harry Steel in a weird west dead lands type 1885.

The next morning was spent mostly in the cube planing. After lunch Harry dressed in the clothes he took/bought the night before over his everyday, thin dragon hide vest. He hit them with a color change spell from brown the black. He pulled on his undercover shoulder gun rig under his jacket. He picked the gun up off the nightstand and ejected the magazine. He topped off the four rounds he used the day before. He slid the gun into the shoulder rig and the whole rig vanished from sight. He add the the black leather gun belt and nickel plated colt to the ensemble. He checked himself out in the mirror and he looked like he stepped off the set of Tombstone. When he came out of his room he saw Hermione coming out of the blue room with a big stack of books.

"Hey Mia, how do i look?" He asked.

"Good, but it's missing something. You need a hat." She said walking into the dining room.

"Yeah, i forgot to grab one last night. What did you do with my gun cleaning kit?" Harry asked following her into the dining room.

"It's back in your bag along with the standard Operative supplies, your guns, a few hundred rounds of enchanted ammo, and a gas tank with a few hundred liters of fuel." She said setting the books on the table and passing one to Abby.

Harry pulled out a rolled up green camp blanket out of his bag and rolled it out on the table. Inside was a bag with cleaning rods, brushes, patches, and a huge can of Ballistol. He pulled the Colt from his gun belt, emptied out the three unfired rounds, took the gun apart and cleaned it as the girls talked about enchantments. The chatter and simple task was calming and enjoyable. He put the gun back together and worked the action a few times. He loaded six rounds as Neville walked in dressed in a suit and grey unspeakable robes.

"Harry, you're only taking that colt with you? And you're leaving your bag?" Neville asked.

"No, i have my Sig in my undercover rig. That's a 156 loaded rounds. If i can't get the job done with that i don't deserve to live." Harry said with a smirk as he grabbed the gold bar he cut from the night before out of the top crate and cut off a few more chunks with a spell. He hit them with a heat spell to make the five small bits look more rough around the edges.

"Right, i'm going back to the mine today. I'm going to set up a few paired portkeys and see if anything is different. Do you think the invisibility enchantments on the grey robes are enough to not be seen?" Neville asked.

"That should do." Harry said,

"Walk you out?" Neville asked.

"Yeah." Harry said putting the five small gold nuggets into a small cloth bag.

They walked out of the cube into the bright desert sun but not heat. The temperature was only about mid sixty. The two men nodded to each other and headed off in different directions. Neville got on his broom, activated his invisibility enchantment and took off heading south. Harry headed north to town about a mile away. The walk was nice and he found himself 'tipping his hat' to people only to stop half way when he remembered he didn't have a hat. This made him realize that a hat is a very important part of the wardrobe. He walked to the bank and traded his 24 ounces of gold for $552. He took half of it in paper money and the other half in coins. Harry spent a minute in the bank looking at the ten and twenty dollar gold coins in the small cloth bag he was handed. Silver dollars were one thing. He had seen those but never coins with this value.

He walked back to the store he robbed/shopped last night. The store was called Holland and sons Haberdashery. He walked in and saw the store looked a lot different in the daylight. He could actually see the things hanging on the racks and folded on tables. More importantly he could see the hats on the shelves above the racks of clothes. He picked up the wide brimmed black hat off the shelf in the front by the window and put it on his head.

"What do you think?" He asked turning to the old man behind the counter.

"It looks good on you." The old man said with a smile. "Red Holland." The man said coming out from behind his counter to greet Harry.

"Harry Steel." Harry said shaking the man's hand.

"Was there something you was looking to buy, aside from the hat of course." The old man said with a smile.

"Yes we came here by wagon and when we crossed the river our bags with our clothes fell out of the wagon and were washed away." Harry lied smoothly.

"Oh how terrible." Red said.

"Yes, i'm going to need to get a bunch of things. Starting with this hat and that big leather carpet bag." Harry said adjusting the hat and looking at his reflection in the small mirror on the wall.

Over the course of an hour Harry bought three more black suits like the one he was wearing, five white shirts, four black vests, a few ties, and two long black heavy leather dusters. He got four simple long skirts in dark brown, blue, green, and black as well as six white blouses that went with them for the girls. He added two white shawls, four pairs of gloves, vests, and two long jackets. He grabbed two corset dresses in black and red. Two white straw hats, and two bonnets. By the time he got to the leather goods he needed a second carpet bag.

He found a pair of black riding boots like the ones he was wearing, and two pairs of mary jane style shoes for the girls. As Red was adding up the total Harry added a second wide brimmed hat for Neville and a bowler hat in case he wanted that instead. He also grabbed a box of small cigars from the counter, took one out and put it in his mouth. The whole purchase came to $244 he handed Red $250 and took the two heavy brown leather carpet bags off the counter. Once he got outside he shrank the two bags, put them in his pocket, and lit the small cigar with his zippo.

He walked down the street and when people tipped their hat he tipped back and smiled. Now he felt like a cowboy. He walked into a saloon through the swinging doors and had to fight the grin off his face as he moseyed on up to the bar and order a shot of whiskey. He could hear the score from For a Few Dollars More in his head as he took a drink of the dirty rubbing alcohol water they called whiskey and surveyed the room as he puffed on his small cigar. The room was populated by fifteen people and all of them could have walked off a Hollywood set. From the bar keep in the red vest white apron, and black arm garters. To the three working girls standing at the railing of the upstairs balcony in half dun up corset dresses and smeared lipstick making eyes at him. To the the five men playing poker at a table getting loud over a bad hand. The lone drunk sitting in the back corner dressed in black with a sheriff star on his jacket. There was even a preacher having drinks with a working girl. Harry smiled, paid for his drink, and walked out as the men playing cards started a bar fight.

Harry walked into the gun store across the street and looked at all the pretty hanging on the walls and sitting in glass cases.

"What can i do you for?" Asked the tall thin man sitting behind the counter cleaning a nickel plated Remington cartridge conversion with silver grips.

"I was just passing through and wanted to see what you had. I love shiny things that go boom. My sisters says i have a problem but i just call myself a collector." Harry said.

"I used to have that same problem until i found a way to have all the shiny i wanted. Sam Hooper. Everyone calls me Smith." The tall man said standing up and wiping off his hand before he offered it to Harry. When they touched Harry felt a small bit of energy pass through his hand.

"Harry Steel. You have some nice stock here." Harry said looking at at the guns in the glass case.

"If you're looking for something real nice i have a few special items in the back." Smith said.

"Like i said i'm always looking for something new. I don't have much coin on me but i have some gold nuggets if you're willing to take that." Harry said feeling the magic coming off the back room.

"For a fellow mage i'm willing to work out a deal." Smith said.

"Good let's see your stock." Harry said.

"Can you lock the door and flip the sign?" Smith asked pulling out a battered red wood wand.

"Sure." Harry said locking the door and flipping the sign.

When he turned around Smith was setting a wood rifle case on the counter. He tapped the locks with his wand and they popped open. He opened the lid and turned the case to Harry showing him it was full of hand engraved mirror polished guns with gold inlay and white perial handles. There was set of Winchester lever action rifles, two Colt Single Action Armys, two S&W Schofields with shortened five inch barrels, two colt cloverleafs, and a set of gold derringers.

"I want." Harry said without realizing he said anything which made Smith laugh.

"All of these are enchanted to never chip, scratch, and always goes boom. They shoot straight as hell and these Winchesters are not even on the market yet. I know a guy at the Winchester factory and he got me these actions. I made the rest of these guns myself. These are next year's model 1886 chambered in 45-70. The tube holds eight shots plus one in the chamber. This stock and foregrip is carved ivory. Over time this will yellow and the carvings of wolves will stand out in deeper relief. I did all of this engraving by hand. The pair of rifles took me weeks of work but they are some of my finest work." Smith said untying the leather cords that held the top rifle in place and handing it to Harry.

Harry worked the action and it was buttery smooth and locked up with a good crisp mechanical clink. He shoulder the rifle and looked down the sights. The top of the gun had small engraved lines to cut down on glare.

"I will take the pair, i don't care what you charge. Now what's with the colts?" Harry asked setting the rifle back in it's place on the red felt of the case.

"Hand engraved with gold inlay and mother of pearl handles. They're charmed to shoot straight and never chip or break. It's the same as the Schofields." Smith said picking one of the colts up and handing it to Harry.

"These feel really crisp and the trigger is nice and light." Harry said.

"Yeah, i'd avoid playing with these when you're drunk you'll blow your foot off." Smith said pulling two black leather double gun belts from off the wall and putting them on the counter. "It comes with leather. Everything does." Smith added.

"I'm guessing these small guns have the same features as the other revolvers?" Harry asked.

"They do with one exception. They take standard colt 45 cartridges. I expanded the cylinders to accept the bigger cartridges. It took some fiddling but i got it to work. They pack a bigger kick but it's an easier cartridge to find and it's better for killing what you're shooting at." Smith said.

"Now that's a good bit of magic. Would you mind explaining how that works to my sister? She's the more learned of the two of us." Harry said taking a round off his belt and putting it in the cloverleaf. It fit.

"I will if you take the whole case." Smith said.

"Like i said, name your price for the case and ten boxes of colt 45, five boxes of 44, and ten boxes of 45-70." Harry said.

"For the rifles it's going to be $200 for each one. Another $200 for the colts and $150 for the Schofields. I can give you the cloverleafs and the dangers for $250. So that's what?" Smith said adding it up in his head.

"That's a thousand dollars dead on. Gold is going for $23 an ounce in town at the bank so that's, 44 ounces? Does that sound right to you?" Harry asked pulling out the shrunken gold bar and expanding it.

"Yeah, that sounds right to me." Smith said eyeing the brick of gold with a shocked look on his face.

"You have a scal i'm guessing ?" Harry asked carving off a chunk with a spell.

"I use it to measure lead for casting. It's not very accurate." Smith said picking up a scale from under the counter.

"Well as long as we come in just under three pounds were okay. Anything over the 44 ounces can be a tip." Harry said as Smith set up the weights.

They weighed out almost three pounds and Harry pulled out one of his carpet bags and added the two double gun belts, the boxes of ammo and the shrunken case with the guns. He was about to leave the store when he saw a very nice short double barrel coach gun with gold engravings of a stagecoach at full gallop on the wall by the doors.

"I'll take this coach gun and six boxes of brass shells too." Harry said grabbing the shotgun and checking the lock up and triggers.

"$24 for the gun and $6 for the shells." Smith said grabbing the six boxes of shotgun shells off the shelf as Harry took out the coins to pay. He set them on the counter before tossing the gun and the shells into the bag. He re-shrunk the bag and shook Smith's hand.

"Pleasure doing business with you Smith, i'll have my sister come by some time to talk to you." Harry said opening the front door and flipping the sign before he walked out.

"Please do, and if you ever feel the need to buy more guns come see me first. I'm always working on something." Smith said.

Harry made one more stop at a horse ranch at the edge of town to ask the price of a horse before heading back to the cube. He walked in and found the two women pouring over books on the dining room table the same way they were when he left three hours ago. Harry un-shrank the carpet bags and set them on the table.

"I got us all two outfits each, and you girls some extra bits. I was not sure about the size but a few spells will fix that. Neville's not back yet from his trip to the mine?" Harry asked.

"Not yet but it's and hour flight to get there and he wanted to do a fly over the area, plus he's armed to the teeth so i'm not worried." Hermione said opening the bags and looking at the skirts and blouses. "Simple and plane. I like it." She said holding up the green skirt.

"I figured you two would want to go with a more school marm look instead of street walker. I also added two fancy dresses and hats which are a very important part of the wardrobe by the way. You feel almost naked without a hat on. I have a bunch of cash left over, and man is this money very ease to counterfeit. We could make stack of this stuff and no one would know the difference. And the coins we could make out of lead and plate them in gold." Harry said holding up a ten dollar bill to the light.

"Why tempt the law?" Hermione said as Neville walked into the room.

"She right you know, the US Secret Service was created to crack down on counterfeiters." Abby said.

"Nothing is going on with the mine. But i set up a few paired portkeys if we ever want to check it later. Aside from that i have nothing else to report. How did it go Harry?" Neville asked taking a seat at the table.

"Good. i have our clothes in this bag. I got you two hats to try on. It's super important to have a good hat. I also found a gun shop runned by a wizard." Harry said.

"What did you buy now?" Hermione asked as Harry pulled the gun case out and expanded it.

"Toys. shiny shiny toys for all of us." Harry said opening the locks on the case and showing off the guns inside.

"Oh those are pretty." Neville said.

"And magically enchanted. I think we can hire Smith the gunsmith in the future for now we use his guns and see how we like them. Neville i got you one of these rifles and this set of Schofields," Harry said handing him the guns out of the case. "They came with nice new shiny black leather gun belts. For you ladies i got you each a Cloverleaf and a gold derringer. They both take colt 45 rounds so watch out for the kick. I also got you a good coach gun Mia." Harry said handing them the guns. He took off his gun belt and put on the new belt with the two new colts. "How do i look?" Harry asked posing with his rifle in his left hand and his colt in his right.

"Like a spaghetti western character." Hermione said.

"Then mission accomplished." Harry said loading nine rounds into his rifle. "Also i'm going to need you to expand the mag tube of this rifle. Nine rounds is not enough." Harry said.

"Enough for what?" Hermione asked looking at the huge 45-70 rounds. "Hunting dinosaurs?" She asked.

"No but if we ever start going on missions or become bounty hunters then we're going to need more rounds available. I don't want to have to pull out my Sig in public if i don't have to." Harry said.

"I'll look into it." Hermione said nodding.

"Also the price of horses is ridiculous. Pack horses are cheap but a good riding horse is almost $200!" Harry said.

"$200 Harry? You're sticker shocked over $200?" Hermione asked.

"Do you have any idea what $200 can buy you in this time period? All the clothes i bought and the two very nice leather bags were less than $250. We don't have stables in the cube. Also we have to take care of a horse. It's bad enough their slow and uncomfortable but they eat and shit like a horse." Harry said.

"Well lucky for you we've been looking into that. You see where as you have guns and explosives and cars in your bag we have our libraries. Abby and i are working on making living gargoyles. Basically big metal sculptures of horses that act like real live horse when activated." Hermione said.

"Great, until then it looks like we're walking everywhere." Harry said.

"Well, actually we need to set up a portkey network which is something we can do now. You guys had a good idea, Import and Export. We can provide shipping to and from major ports around the world at a lower price and deliver in a shorter time frame and we can guarantee delivery without the shipment being lost. We need to set up a home base. This will require us to set up offices and warehouses in major cities. We can start in places like Chicago, New York, and London. From there we can expand as we get new shipping orders. Take for example a shipment of cotton cloth is dropped off at our New York office and it needs to go to Barcelona Spain. We will fly to Spain with the shipment, hand it off, and while we're in Barcelona Spain we'll open an office with a portkey point. We only have to fly to a place once. You have your world war two planes that you fixed up to to be super fast and be pond hoppers. You can take off from a field and land in a field. One of you fly to a field outside Chicago, land, and drive to the city limits with your bike. From there walk to the lakefront and buy a warehouse." Hermione said.

"Just walk to the lakefront and buy a warehouse." Harry mocked.

"I'm with Harry it's going to be a lot harder then that Love." Neville said.

"You're both trained Operatives, living in the past, where the people are dumber and things are cheaper. We're people from the future act like it." She said.

"Okay, say we do this, fly to Chicago and buy a warehouse, who's going to run it for us, we're four people. We need someone to man the warehouse and deal with customers if Neville and I are going to be jet setting around the world setting up offices." Harry said.

"Abby told me the Salem institute graduates between 100-150 students each year at this time in history. These witches and wizards just got a magical education and there's only five cities in the world they can work in with jobs that use the skills they just learned. Most of them will be on a train headed back to the family farm. We'll hire a few dozen of them, swear them to secrecy, and pay them a good wage to man the warehouses around the world. We'll buy an apartment building in New York or Chicago and give them cheap or free room and board." Hermione said.

"Who's going to do the hiring of these workers? You said it yourself we're Operatives. Hired guns. We don't do paperwork." Harry said.

"I'll go to the school and get a list of students and hire them. But in order to do that we need a portkey network. Add Boston to your list of cities." Hermione said.

"Okay." Harry said thinking about it.

"Okay? That's it? No complaining?" She asked with a smile.

"No complaining. We should add San Francisco to the list as well. Gold mining and transport of gold is a dangerous business after all." Harry added.

"Good thinking. We need to turn most of that gold into cash. I wonder how far we can stretch that gold?" Hermione said.

"Out here it will go far but on the east coast you're going to go broke fast. Things are expensive there. You might have to build up capital before you go right into your shipping business." Abby said.

"What's the best way to make money?" Harry asked.

"Mining. I have a book of mining maps of the south west. It might be easier to stay out west until the first great depression. Also that's a good way to make money. We know what the market is going to do for the most part. If you go to New York and invest in the stock market you can build up your capital. I can help you with that. I was a US history major in school." Abby said.

"That means we still have to set up portkey landing sites on the east coast." Harry said.

"We could also collect bounties. How hard can it be to capture or kill criminals in 1885. We have point me spells, body armor, and modern guns at our disposal." Neville said.

"Now you're thinking Neville. Tomorrow i'll fly out to Chicago, change over some of the gold, and set up a portkey space. Then i'll fly out to Boston and New York do the same thing. On the way back i'll head down south to Florida or something and set up a nice place to work and live. Trade with the Caribbean is still huge right?" Harry asked Abby.

"It's about to get a lot bigger, the Spanish American war starts in fifteen years, and the banana wars start after that. Trade with South America is going to get big in the next thirty years." She said.

"Okay then that's what i'm going to do tomorrow. I'll portkey back from south Florida when i'm all done." Harry said.

"While you're out doing that i'll head into town and talk to the local sheriff and see if i can get some contract work. I'll also look at the mining maps and see if there's something close by. Maybe i can strip mine some land with cutting charms and C4. I'll summon out the bits of gold by myself. We don't need to hire minors. Which means we get to keep all the profits." Neville said.

"Good thinking. I'm going to go cook some dinner and then i'm going to hit the sack. I plan on being in the air before the town wakes up. I want to fuel up the plane before i cloak it." Harry said.

"Also don't forget about the list Hermione." Abby said.

"Right i'm glad you reminded my. This is a list of 47 artifacts that were in the dark vault back at the DoM. These are things that can not remain in the world unguarded for too long. We will have to collect them at some point. We need to build a dark vault first, but once we have a secure place to store these things we need to go get them." Hermione said.

"Great. Put it on the to do list." Harry said heading into the kitchen to make dinner.

That night they had pork chops, stuffing, and mashed potatoes for dinner and Harry went to bed early. The next morning he got up at four and took a quick shower. He dressed in black suit pants, a white shirt, a black vest and his shoulder rig with his Sig 226. He took his long black duster and and hat and tossed them into his messenger bag. He added his shrunken Winchester rifle, his gun belt with his two colts, a few candy bars, a few cans of soda, three MREs, and his black thermos. He took the crate of 19 gold bars and added the bar that was missing a corner. He took one of the gas tanks. He left most of the money on the table but kept $50 and a few coins. He made himself a bagel and a cup of coffee and ate over the sink. He filled his coffee thermos with most of the pot of coffee and added a bunch of sugar. As he was walking out the door Abby came out of her room dressed in the brown skirt and white blouse. She looked like a school marm with her hair up in a bun and it made him smile.

"You're heading out?" She asked.

"Yeah. i have to fuel up my plane and then i'm going to head out." Harry said.

"Do you want some company while you work?" She asked.

"Sure." Harry said handing her the leather long coat by the door as he put on his soft brown bomber's jacket.

He lead her out into the dark early morning cold. Harry walked fifty feet away from the cube and pulled out his P-51 Mustang. He expanded it and walked around the plane checking it over using his flashlight. Abby stood close by admiring the shiny silver plane. It had yellow and black checkered tail, there was a pin up of a black haired woman in a black dress with a smoking gun in her hand. Written in the smoke cloud was "femme Fatale" the top of the nose was painted flat black and the propeller cone had a black and yellow spiral. Under each wing and the belly of the plane were bomb shaped fuel tanks. Harry expanded the water bottle fuel tank to the size of two 55 gallon drums stacked on top of each other. And pulled the filler gun and hose out of the side. He opened a cap on the side of the plane and started filling up the tanks.

"This is going to take a while. The tank inside the plane is 800 gallons, the two under the wings are 300 gallon each and the under belly tank is 400 gallons. But once i top off all the tanks i'll be good for just shy of 24,000 miles." Harry said watching the gas go in.

"Wow, that's almost all the way around the world." She said.

"I've taken this plane around the world. It's what it was made for. Neville's plane does the same thing. We rebuilt them from the frame up. We lighted them up with featherweight charms and tuned up the engines. This baby has a cruising speed of 650 mph. And a top speed just over 700. We set the magical world record for circumnavigating the planet in WWII fighter planes. We did it in under 38 hours. We beat the shit out of the engines though so we overhauled them. That was ten years ago. Back then i didn't have the wing tanks, just the big internal tank, and we didn't have the refueling tankers like this. We had to make stops for gas. Hey Abby, do me a favor, get into the cockpit and tell me what the digital read out says." Harry said nodding to the cockpit.

"How do i get up there?" She asked.

"You can pop up there or use the foot holes." Harry said with a smirk.

"Right." She said popping up to the wing and stepping into the plush interior. It was like a single seater sports car inside. Every bit of the cockpit was covered in brushed aluminum and soft brown leather. The seat was soft brown padded leather bucket seat and the instrument panel was replaced with a magical LCD screen.

"What's it say under fuel?" Harry asked.

"Ummm, it says tanks 2, 3, and 4 are full and tank 1 is climbing up to almost full." She said.

"When it hits 790 tell me." Harry said.

"Okay! You're there." She called out.

"Good. That took 878 gallons. That means the drop tanks were mostly full." Harry said. Shrinking the gas tank. He hopped up onto the wing and climbed up to the cockpit. "So what do you think about my Femme Fatale?" Harry asked.

"I like her. She's pretty." Abby said standing up and stepping out onto the wing next to Harry.

"Here let me help you down." Harry said taking her hand and lowering her to the ground.

"Well good luck Harry. Safe flight." She said.

"I'll see you later. Now get back in the cube it's cold out here." Harry said with a smile as he climbed into the cockpit and hit a few switches.

He hit a clear red button and the plane vanished outside the cockpit around him. He hit the start button and the engine sputtered to life he hit a blue button and the noise died but the read out was still active and the wind outside was blowing around. He coasted forwards and made sure nothing was in front of him before he gunned the throttle and he was in the air in a few hundred feet. He turned east as he climbed and set a heading for Chicago on his magical HUD. He climbed to 25,000 feet, and sat back in his seat. He pulled out his phone, plugged it into the Aux jack, opened his music app, and hit play. Journey's Faithfully came out of the four speakers in the cockpit and Harry grind as he headed towards dawn.

As he made his way across the country he spotted cities, or what would be cities in the future. Two hours into his flight a thought struck him. He was the only man in the world flying. The only thing in the air that morning were birds and him. It excited him and made him unbelievably sad. He cut off the music and called Hermione.

"Hey Harry, is everything going alright?" She asked looking like she was still in bed.

"Everything is going fine, i'm somewhere over the midwest. I just called because a thought hit me, i'm making the first manned flight." Harry said with a sad smile.

"It's finally hitting you that were not in our right time. Were strangers in a strange world." She said sharing his look.

"Yeah. The first night i was so tired i didn't care where i was and yesterday it was fun because i walked through town and it was like i was walking through my favorite western but now. Right now, it just hit me. We're stuck here. Were stuck in the fucking stone age. The car won't be invented for another decade and real cars won't be a thing for thirty years. I'll be sixty-five by then. Electricity, TV, hell movies won't really be a thing until 1920 something. This is fucked Hermione!" Harry said getting angry because he was getting emotional.

"Harry, sweety, i need you to calm down. You're not alone remember? You have your family with you. You have me and Neville. You know who's alone? Abby's alone. She's stuck in the past with three people she doesn't know. And what does it matter if cars are not going to be around until you're 65. The day the Model T comes out you and Neville will buy two of them, take them apart and mess with them until their dangerously fast and race each other like the children you both are. You said it yourself Harry we're going to live to see the day we came back at the very least. Were going to make it back to our time, unless you like the way you look now and you want to lock it in forever. Because if you do there's a philosopher's stone in Egypt right now. It's buried in a tomb with a dead pharaoh. That's always an option Harry, you know that. Look at Dumbledore he should have died long before he was killed. The stone gave him life and power." Hermione said.

"Yeah, that's an option. I just kind of wanted to see the future you know? Now we have to live out the past. On the one hand it's cool you know? Like yesterday's shopping trip. On the other hand the fact that we have to live out the past sucks. I guess it all comes down to an absence of choice." Harry said.

"I understand Harry. When you take away the option of something else, what you're left with never feels good no matter how good it is." She said.

"That's too deep for this early in the morning." Neville said.

"Neville's in the room? Did he hear all that?" Harry asked feeling shame.

"Yes and don't feel embarrassed. He had his own little freak out yesterday morning. For him it was the fact that he was running low on toothpaste and he couldn't just go to the store to get more Crest. For me it was booting up my old beat up laptop and thinking in my head that i really should go buy a new one. I can't do that for a long time. I'm sure Abby's had a moment or she will soon. Were marooned here Harry. It's normal to feel abandoned because we are. We just have to make the best of it." She said with a soft motherly smile.

"Yeah. The old keep calm and carry on stiff upper lip British way." Neville added.

"Thank you brother, i got it. I'll see you guys either tonight or tomorrow morning. I left a portkey sticker in the front hallway." Harry said.

"See you later. I love you." She said.

"Love you too sis." Harry said.

"I love you sissy." Neville said laughing.

"Fuck you Nev." Harry said laughing.

"You two are the worst." Hermione said hanging up.

Harry put on his aviator sunglasses and switched the playlist from soft rock to ACDC. Thunderstruck came on and his grin got bigger. Harry sang and he played air drums all the way to lake Michigan. Harry did a pass over the city of Chicago and he was about to head out of town to land when he saw Grant Park, or what was going to be Grant park, at this point it was a marsh land behind the Art Institute. Harry made a slow and low pass over the park and checked to make sure the park was empty before making his approach. He dropped in very low and coasted to the ground, he slowed to a stop in a hundred feet and shut the engine off as fast as he could to not draw attention to himself. He looked around to make sure no one was around and popped out of his plane. He shrank it with a wave of his hand and summoned to his hand so he didn't have to drop the cloaking enchantment. He put the still invisible plane away in his gold pill box and pulled his duster and hat out of his bag which he shrank and put in his pocket. He saw the road a few hundred feet away and headed that way. He checked the time on the clock on the corner and it was five after eleven. Not a bad time for a hop from Nevada to Chicago.

It took Harry a half an hour of asking directions and walking but he found a good sized bank that was just down the street from jewelers row on south Wabash avenue in the loop. He walked into the bank and saw the bank tellers and the offices for lenders, but what caught his eye was a shimmering sign over a door that read 'Gringotts'. Harry walked through the door and found a small teller window with a short fat man dressed in a three piece grey suit looking bored out of his mind. Harry approached and held out his hand to the fat little man, who was obviously a goblin wearing a glamour, and an exchange of magic passed between them.

"What is your business today?" He asked.

"I'm looking to buy some property and maybe trade a bit of gold for coin." Harry said.

"This way." The goblin said hopping off the tall stool he was sitting on and leading him down the hall to a door marked 'Real Estate' "He will help you." The goblin said.

"Good afternoon. You're in the market for a house? Do you have a loan with the bank or will you be buying cash? I'm Blood...um, John" A hyper slightly taller thinner man in a grey suit asked with an odd smile.

"Hello John, I'm Harry Steel. I'm in the market for a warehouse, preferably close to the water and/or the train yard." Harry said.

"And you are going to be buying with cash?" John asked.

"I was hoping to buy with gold." Harry said pulling out the crate of gold and unshrinking it. "What's the exchange rate for gold galleon?" Harry asked.

"Depending on how pure your bars are the exchange rate is one gold galleon per ounce of gold." John said.

"And the exchange rate for galleons to dollars is what?" Harry asked.

"One gold Galleon is $25. A silver Sickle is $2.50, and a bronze Knut is $ .25." The goblin said eyeing the bars.

"I have 18 pure gold bars of 400 ounces each. That's 7,200 galleons or $180,000. I'll take it. I also have another crate like this in my hotel room with ten more bars." Harry said.

"We can exchange it for you, would you like to open a vault with the bank or do you want coin? It's a lot of coin to carry after all." John asked.

"Will my vault be here in this building?" Harry asked.

"No it will be held in the main branch in Dragon Alley in New York City deep underground and protected by heavy wards. We are a satellite branch. Most cities have an office like this." John said.

"In that case i'll open a vault. Also, i'm Harry Potter by birth, is their a way to legally change my name to Harry Steel?" Harry asked.

"There is, for a small fee of one Galleon we can file the paperwork necessary to make the change. Will you be needing a Head of House ring as well as the muggle documents?" John asked.

"I think i will, it's a must if i want to do business in magical districts around the world right?" Harry asked.

"Yes, especially Britain." John said.

"I'll take a ring too." Harry said.

"Okay let's start with your gold exchange and then we'll look at real estate." John the goblin said with a grin.

An hour later Harry Steel, the first of the House of Steel stood in front of a burnt out brick warehouse with a dock on the Chicago river out back that was close to the lake, and close by the railway station on 215 North Canal street. The building was a bit beat up and it used to be a leather tanning house until the building burt. But with a few cleaning charms and some repairs it would be a good place to start their business. And for the price he got it for in fifty years the land would be worth so much they could sell for millions. For half a block of future prime real estate Harry paid 60 galleons, $1,500. Harry fixed the big wooden door with a wave of his hand and walked in. The structure was sound. The red brick walls, slab concrete floor, and the the metal beams for the second floor and roof were sound but there was no second floor and the roof was half missing and half burnt. Harry turned to John.

"So how much will it cost me to get a roof on the place?" Harry asked.

"For a roof that size it will be 15 gallons, but for 25 we can fix the second floor as well." John said.

"How much to make the second floor apartments with magical plumbing and heating?" Harry asked.

"15 galleons more, but for that price we would put magical heating, plumbing, and lighting throughout the whole building." John said.

"So 40 galleons for the repairs and 60 galleons for the building. 100 galleons all in. That's $2,500." Harry asked pulling his wand and trying to repair the roof to no avail.

"Yes, for that price we can have this place up and running with magical gas lamps, plumbing, heating, and six one bedroom one bathroom apartments on the second floor. In 6 days time." John said.

"Deal. I'll be by later this afternoon with the other ten bars of gold i have and sign the paperwork." Harry said shaking his hand.

"This was a most profitable day." John said.

"Tonight i'm heading to New York and Boston later the next day to buy the same kind of building. I'm setting up a magical shipping company. Any advice on who to talk to in those cities." Harry asked as they walked around the warehouse.

"Bone Breaker in New York, and Venom Drinker in Boston. They don't wear glamours and use human names on the east coast unless they have to." John said.

"And what's your real name?" Harry asked.

"Blood Letter." He said.

"Well it's nice to meet you Blood Letter. I'll see you back at the bank in a bit. I want to walk the property one more time and walk back to the bank to get a feel for the trip. I'm going to be making it often." Harry said.

"I look forward to it." Blood Letter said getting into a black carriage pulled by a big Clydesdale and driven by a boy in his teens dress in a top hat and tails.

Harry walked back into the warehouse and closed the door behind him he pulled out his phone and called Hermione.

"Hey Harry, how are things going?" She asked.

"Good. I'm standing in our new Chicago branch warehouse of Blackwell and Steel Shipping. What do you think?" Harry said switching to the rear facing camera and doing a wide pan of the burnt out building.

"Really Harry? It's a burnt out building. I can't believe you bought that junk. How many thousands of dollars did it cost?" She asked.

"Well first of all i need you to get an idea of the location. Were in what will become the heart of the financial district in the heart of the city. We are on the Chicago river close to the lake and right down the street from the train station. Also i bought it from the goblins at Gringotts and they worked out a deal to renovate it for a good price. Now here's the kicker. I paid $2,500 for it.

"Really? How much are the renovation costs? Goblin labor is not cheap after all. In our day they would charge an arm and a legs for their work." She asked.

"No that's included in the price. $2,500 for a fully operational warehouse with six apartments on the second floor and magical heating, plumbing, and gas lighting. He also gave me a line on goblins in New York and Boston and he's going to send them messages telling them i'm coming and to expect me. This is where you say you're sorry for doubting me and you congratulate me on a job well done." Harry said with a big smirk.

"I'm so very sorry i doubted you, congratulations on this wonderful investment you made for the future of our family." She said in a mocking tone.

"Brat." Harry said laughing.

"It's my job to make your life hard." she said with a smile.

"Like i said, brat. Send me another ten gold bars, the goblins are giving me $25 an ounce, and i opened an account at the bank under the name Steel and Blackwell. They also do muggle documents and House rings. I'm legally Harry Steel now and i'm getting a head of house ring made right now. Neville needs to portkey out here at some point and get his papers and family in order. Also can you send me a tent. Either yours or Abby's. I'm going to hang around the city until it get dark and head out tonight. I'll land somewhere and camp for the night before heading into the city. That way the letter gets there ahead of me. It will make things easier. I also moved some funds into an investment account and invested in Standard Oil and General Electric. Ask Abby what else i should invest in." Harry said.

"Harry there's a company that was started this year called Johnson Controls. They make the first thermostat and it's going to revolutionize the world but it's going to be a slow earner. Next year Johnson and Johnson and Dow petrochemical go public and come on the market and buy stock in Coca cola." She said when Hermione handed her the phone.

"Good call. I'll tell my goblin banker." Harry said.

"Harry i'm sending you my tent and a half case of gold bars what portkey are we using? And how are you going to set up the portkey point in Chicago?" Hermione asked.

"Send it with portkey 53589 and take the next five stickers in that number set and put them aside. I'm going to stick them on the side of the warehouse by the alley until the building is renovated. Then we can set up a portkey pad." Harry said.

"Got you, i'm boxing it all up and it will be ready to go when you are." She said.

"Thanks, i'll see you guys tomorrow night." Harry said hanging up.

He stuck the sticker to the floor next to him and a box appeared. Harry put the tent in his pocket and shrank the box of gold and walked out. He walked the six blocks back to the bank and walked right into Blood Letter's office. He took a seat and expanded the box of gold.

"Good, you came back just as your ring was delivered. Also the money you requested. 100 gold galleons, and $250 in coins." He said handing him a ring box and two small red money bags full of coins.

Harry opened the ring box and when he saw the ring inside he almost laughed but he kept it in. The ring was silver with a wolf's head in profile on a black background and a nameplate that read STEEL in a times new roman style font. It looked good, the thing was it looked like the house Stark wolf and that's what almost made him laugh. Harry put the ring on his right hand and took the pack of documents Blood Letter handed him.

"I need you to sign, and seal all of this. Was there anything else you wanted to do today?" He asked handing Harry a fountain pen.

"Yes, i want to invest in Coca cola and Johnson Controls. Also there are two companies that are going to start publicly trading at some point. Johnson and Johnson, and Dow Petrochemical. As soon as it's available i want you to buy as much stock in those two companies as you can." Harry said looking over the paperwork.

"Easily done and you can owl the bank at any time to buy or sell stocks as long as you sign and seal the letter with your ring. That ring is your magical signature. Nobody can make one of those rings without goblin magic." Blood letter said as Harry pressed the face of his ring into the small box next to his signature it glowed red and when he lifted the image of his ring was burned into the paper.

"Good. At some point soon my brother in law is going to stop by and legally change his name as well." Harry said filling out the last form.

"We will be waiting for him." Blood Letter said with his creepy smile which Harry figured out was the glamour trying to keep up with his goblin face.

"Great, it was a pleasure doing business with you. Now if you would point me in the direction of a good place to get a big plate of meat and potatoes i would be in your debt." Harry said standing up.

"Three blocks that way is a steakhouse called Porters. They have good fresh meats in large portions at a competitive price." Blood letter said.

"Sounds good, come on, let's go eat like kings." Harry said.

"It's not right to eat on a client's tab." Blood Letter said.

"We just did thousands of dollars in business. You set up meetings for me with bank branches in other cities. You've been a big help to me Blood Letter. The least i can do is buy you a meal. Now let's get moving. I've been up for hours and we missed lunch. Now let us have our fill of meat and fine spirits until we are drunk off our decadence." Harry said holding open the office door and waiting for Blood Letter to come with him.

"Okay." Blood Letter said nodding with a grin. "We'll take the carriage." He added as they walked out of the bank. They got in the carriage and the boy asked where they were headed.

"Porters James." Blood Letter called out and the carriage started moving.

At the restaurant they were seated in a back corner booth and they started the meal off by ordering a bottle of Highland Park 25 year old scotch and two glasses. Two very large porterhouse steaks, two big lobster tails, and two huge baked potatoes later they were so full they felt sick. Harry pulled out his cigar case and offered Blood Letter one of the small mild cigars he bought the day before. They smoked and finished their drinks. Harry shrank the half empty bottle of Highland Park 1870 and put it in his pocket. The bill came to $6.85 Harry handed the waiter a ten dollar coin and they walked out. They parted ways on the street with Blood Letter getting in his carriage and Harry walking down the street.

Harry walked for the next two hours. He stopped in a jewelry store and bought a gold pocket watch with a wolf on it for himself, a gold pocket watch with exposed gears for Neville, a sliver round woman's necklace watch for Abby, and a necklace watch shaped like a gold book for Hermione. He also got a gold match box and some wood matches so he didn't have to hide is zippo. He found a tailor that had suits available and bought four English cut suits, two black and two dark grey along with top hats, top coats, and black oxford wing tipped shoes to go along with them. He found a haberdashery that sold dyed wood buttons by the pound for a dollar. He bought a pound each of black, white, green, and brown buttons. Now he had something to make paired portkeys with. Harry passed a little shop at the end of a block but as he passed by the feeling of magic hit him. He turned around and saw it was a little curio shop. He walked in the the feeling of magic hit him harder.

The shop was small and it was packed floor to ceiling with shelves full of junk. This was less of a shop and more of a organized hoarder's house. Harry closed his eyes and felt out with his magic. He found a few magical items around the shop and went around collecting them. Ironically he found a small magic detector in the form of a brass compass. He found a magical tea set in a small wicker basket like the one he had in the cube, a pocket watch you could link up to five monitoring charms to, and a dictation pen. Harry bought his whole haul for $3.55. He asked the man where other junk shops were and he was pointed to a shop around the corner.

For the next four hours Harry went to five junk shops. He got quite a lot of good stuff but for the most part it was junk like dictation pens, self lighting pipes and tea sets that made tea with a tap of the wand. But he did find some dark items like two blood quills, a gold ring with a love charm on it, a bottle of basilisk venom in the bottom of an old potions kit being sold as a doctor's bag, and a porcelain doll that was most definitely possessed by something evil. Harry took that out in an alley and hit it with a fire spell and he kept hitting it until he was sure it was dead. As the fire consumed it, the face cracked and it let out a god offal scream that would have summoned everyone in a six block range if he didn't put up silencing charms. When it was fully dead Harry scattered the ashes.

He did end up with some nice and useful stuff. He found a small pocket knife with an enchanted razor sharp edge, a brooch with a minor shield charm, and a locket with a storage compartment that he would have to look in later. But by far his favorite discovery was a very fat polished wood fountain pen with gold furniture and a gold button that extended a 35 inch tri-sided blade with a razor sharp point. It was a dueling foil. Harry looked at the name one the clip. "Potenti Penne, Italy". He vowed to find the man that made the pen so he could shake his hand. It was genius and he was sure Neville would want one.

By that time the sun had gone down and the mid October air got crisp and cold. With the last bit of dying light the gas laps kicked on and the city of people rushing to a from places trying to do the day's work slowed down. People headed home and the only people on the streets were people headed to dinner in fancy places with white table cloths or rough and tumble pubs. Harry asked around and found a good pub that sold better food and drink but the crowd looked rough and tumble still and he saw a few men with guns in their belts. Harry decided to get his colt.

He walked into the alley behind the pub and pulled out his bag. He was about to pull his gun out when a boy came up to him and pointed a small revolver at him.

"Give me your money." The kid said.

"Really?" Harry asked looking at the boy with a bemused smile.

"I'm not messing around mister." The boy said in a voice that warbled as the fear of someone not afraid of him hit the boy.

"First of all son, bullets come out, you don't have to get this close to someone to threaten them with a gun. If you do get this close they can take your gun, like this." Harry said snatching the small gun out of his hand and shocking the boy with the speed at which he moved. "Secondly, if you threaten to shoot someone you have to be willing to do it and if you plan on shooting someone you should have the hammer cocked back on your pistol." Harry said cocking the hammer back and putting it to the boy's head. "And third, boy, if you're going to threaten someone with a gun you should act like you have the balls to kill a man. You see my eyes boy? These are the eyes of a killer. You have the eyes of a kid that would piss himself if he met someone like me in a dark alley. Just like your doing now." Harry said coldly as the boy shook and peed his pants.

"I'm really sorry mister! I'm just hungry is all. I found that gun in the sewer. I don't even know if it works. Please don't kill me!" He cried and Harry instantly felt bad. This was not some punk kid stick up man. This was a kid that hadn't had a meal in a week. He was barefoot and his threadbare grey pants and jacket were two sizes too big and his once white shirt was now coffee stain brown. The boy was covered in dirt and looked like he lived in the sewer he found the gun in.

"Okay. Relax kid i'm not going to kill you, i'm going to give you a job." Harry said running a scan over the boy. He was magical, on the normal to weak end of the Merlin scale, but magical nonetheless. "Let's get you cleaned up." Harry said waving at the boy and hitting him with a cleaning charm. The boy looked shocked. "You got family kid?" Harry asked looking at the gun, it was a nice Whitney Arms model 1. With a brass frame, pearl grips, and covered in engraving.

"No sir. My ma died a long time ago and my pa went to the bar one day and never came back." The boy said. Harry hit the gun with a cleaning charm and handing it back to the boy.

"Hold on to that, it's a nice gun. We're going to go into this pub and have dinner. Then i'm going to tell you about the job i have for you." Harry said pulling the shiny colt from his bag and tucking it in his belt.

They walked into the pub and Harry sat in a booth in the corner of the room across from the small boy, they had meat pies and a pint of hoppy beer for Harry, a bottle of coke for the boy. Harry watched the boy plow through the meat pie. He was reminded of himself at that age. Messy black hair, too big hand-me-down clothes, malnourished, and that scared look in his eyes.

"Slow down boy, you'll get sick if you eat that fast. Trust me, i know. I was hunger once. I was an orphan once too. I know what it feels like to have no money in your pocket. But i, unlike you, was trained to use my power. You're what, 10?" Harry asked.

"I don't know. I never had a birthday." The boy said with a shrug.

"Jesus kid. What's your name?" Harry asked trying to ignore the fact that until he went to grade school he didn't know when his birthday was either.

"Tommy." The boy said.

"Well Tommy. You are now a man with a job. It's an important job. You're my watchman. You're going to guard my warehouse until it's built then you're going to make sure no one tries to rob it during the night. For this i will pay you four dollars a day and give you a place to stay in the warehouse." Harry said pulling out a cigar and lighting it with a match. What started out as a Man With No Name joke was quickly becoming a habit.

"You're going to pay me four whole dollars a day and give me a place to live?" Tommy asked looking shocked.

"Yes, and if you're a good worker, if you hold up your end of the deal, then i will send you to Salem to learn Magic on my dime. But you have to do your job. You're my man in this city until i come back. You have to act like it. I'm leaving tonight but i'll be back in a few days. The goblins from the magic bank are going to start fixing the place up, i want you to stay out of their way but at night when the work stops you make sure the place is safe. I'm making you the head of security for my Chicago branch of Blackwell and Steel Shipping." Harry said.

They finished eating and Harry ordered two more pies and three more bottles of coke. He handed the paper bag to the boy and payed the $1.75 bill and handed the $.25 to the boy.

They walked the ten blocks back to the warehouse and stopped off at a general store that was just about to close for the night. Harry bought three wool camp blankets, boots, a heavy wool coat, thick wool socks, a paperboy cap, a big cast iron dutch oven, a candle lantern, a box of matches, and four 100 round boxes of .22 short for $9.50. Again he handed the boy the change. When they got to the warehouse Harry laid out one of the blanket folded up like a bed, he folded the other blanket like a pillow and set the third blanket on top. He pulled a few pieces of burnt up wood off the pile in the corner and split them into a pile of coals. He dumped a few into the cast iron pot and lit them with a match. Soon there was a good small fire going. He lit the candle lantern and handed it to the boy who was wearing the socks, boots, cap, and the coat.

"You walk the perimeter of the building. There is a silencing charm on the building. That means you can hear what's going on outside but they can't hear you. This is a head sized target." Harry said turning a burnt piece of wood into a ten inch round target and stuck it to the back wall.

"The effective range of a .22 short out of that gun is about 10 foot. This line is 10 foot." Harry said marking a line on the ground.

"I want you to practice hitting that target. You have a watch? You know how to tell time?" Harry asked pulling one of the cheap brass magical pocket watches from his bag and handing it to him.

"Every hour from now, which is just past seven, until one am i want you to try to hit the target with 12 shots and then reload and walk the perimeter of the building. This is the key to the front door. You lock it behind you when you go on patrol and you lock it when you come in. Stay warm and if you shoot someone tell the cops you work for me and they can reach me through the first national bank six blocks from here on Wabash. Now let me show you how to work that gun." Harry said.

Harry stuck around for a few minutes and showed the kid how to use the gun. He penned a note to Blood Letter telling him about the boy. He signed it and sealed it and told the boy to take it to the bank the next day before he left. He popped to the roof across the way and sat there watching the warehouse. He waited a few minutes and watched the kid come out the front door with the lantern and the gun in his waistband. He watched him walk around the building and head back inside. Harry pooped to the front door and checked to make sure it was locked when he saw that it was he vanished to the rooftop put on his invisibility cloak and pulled out his broom. He flew over the hole in the roof and saw the boy sitting on the blanket bed warming his hands by the fire and drinking a bottle of coke. Harry flew up over the city and found a place outside the city limits where there were no lights. He headed west and as he got closer he got lower. He found a farmhouse about fifty miles outside the city and landed in the back corner of the farm away from the house and set up Hermione's tent just inside the trees that lined the property.

He walked into the tent and found wall to wall book shelves. Harry walked over to the brown leather couch and dropped down into the comfy cushions with a sigh. He dumped out his bag on the big dark wood coffee table and looked at his collection of junk. He set aside the things he was keeping like the pen sword, the pocket knife, and the watch with the monitoring charm in one pile. He put the things he was giving to his family in another pile and looked at the junk he had left. Three cheap brass magical watches, two cheap self lighting pipes, two beat up dictation pens, and a tea set with a ugly brown and pink pattern. He boxed up the gifts and left it on the table. He boxed up the junk and put it in his bag. He turned on Hermione's TV and saw she was watching You Got Mail the last time she was in here. It was paused at the part where Tom Hanks figures out Meg Ryan is the girl he's been talking to all along. Harry hit play and before he knew it he was snoring.


	3. Chapter 3

AN: I've been getting a few questions, (sarcastic as they are) asking if i'm just posting the start of a store to abandon it. the answer is no, this story is complete. i have all 12 chapters of it. i'm putting out 3 chapters a week to buy time to start writing up the story based off this one. as you see this story covers 1885-1890. the next installment, (if i ever write it) will most likely cover 1910-1918 to cover WWI. the next one would be 1920-1930 for the gangster era. 1935-1945 for WWII. 55-60 for Hollywood gangsters (LA Confidential) basically take it back to present day jumping forwards to cover a chunk of time.

Harry's phone beeped at 4 am. He rolled off the couch and stretched as every bone in his back and neck cracked and popped back into place. He started the coffee pot and took a shower. He dressed in the grey English cut suit he bought the day before. He put the jacket as well as the top coat and top hat in his bag. He made a plate of eggs and toast and ate it with a cup of coffee. He filled his thermos and headed out of the tent. He shrank the tent and took out his flight jacket. He expanded his invisible plane and popped into the cockpit. He started the plane and took off without a sound right at five am. He used his magical hud to set a course for New York and sat back as the plane carried him to his destination.

Unlike yesterday this trip was short. In just an hour and a half he saw the packed island that made up Manhattan. He flew around a bit looking for a place to set down and found a spot in New Jersey. He landed in a field and hopped out of his plane. He shrank it and pulled on his cloak and broom. As he took off headed to Manhattan he looked back at the field and it's location relative to the Hudson river and realized he landed on the same spot where Teterboro Airport would be built in the future. He laughed as he flew to the city and set down across the street from the Dragon Head Pub in Battery Park. He took off his cloak, and leather jacket. He pulled on his Grey suit jacket, black wool overcoat, and top hat. He walked into the Pub and smirked at the fact that like the Leaky Cauldron this pub never changes. Harry looked at his pocket watch and saw it was only eight am. He took a seat at the bar and ordered a coffee and a magical New York Times.

Harry spent the next half hour skimming the paper and sipping his really bad cup of coffee. At half past eight he got up, tucked the paper under his arm and walked through the back door into Dragon alley, Diagon alley's twin in almost every way. He passed by shops that were opening their doors for the morning and headed to the other end of the long cobbled stone street to the big white bank building. He walked up to a teller who looked not too pleased to see a human this early.

"Good morning. I'm Harry Steel. I'm here to see Bone Breaker, he's expecting me although maybe not this early, if he's not in or busy i'm prepared to wait." Harry said with a friendly smile.

"Come with me." The teller said hopping off his chair and leading him deeper into the bank where the bigger offices were. He took him to a big door and knocked. Harry got a good look at the gold name plate as the teller opened the door. 'Bone Breaker: Senior Branch Manager'

"Yes?" The goblin sitting behind a big desk asked.

"Harry Steel Sir. He says he has an appointment." The teller said in a mocking way.

"Yes let him in." He said standing up as Harry walked into the office.

"Good morning, i didn't know if i was early." Harry said.

"Not at all i just i got done reading Blood Letter's note. I understand you're looking to start a shipping company and you need warehouse space. I have a few properties we can look at as well as a gem of a place with some issues, but i can tell you this now you might want to buy in New Jersey, it's close enough to the city and most goods go through there anyways. You can get twice the space for half the price." Bone Breaker said.

"Yes but an investment in land on the island now will pay back it's cost ten fold in a few years time if i ever sell." Harry said.

"Good, i like that. Spend more now for something better then something bigger. That's goblin thinking." He said with a toothy grin.

"And who say's we can't do both. Land is land, once you have it, you can do what you want with it. I plan on buying warehouse space in every major port city in the world." Harry said.

"In that case let me get my book and let's go look at property." Bone Breaker said activating his glamour. What once was a four foot tall muscular goblin in his prime became a five and a half foot tall barrel chested gentleman of English good looks in his mid forties.

They exited the bank through a side door and they found themselves on a side street across the way from Delmonico's steakhouse. Bone Breaker whistled for a black four seater carriage pulled by two black horses. When they got in Bone breaker told the driver an address in the battery park area and poured Harry a cup of english tea.

"Now this is the life." Harry said.

"The perks of being branch manager for a major hub." He said making a cup for himself.

A short trip later found them on the waterfront looking at a good sized brick warehouse on the west side of the island at the north end of Battery park. The warehouse was three stories tall, 200 foot wide and 100 foot deep with big doors for moving oversized carts in and out and a long dock that extended out of the back a few hundred feet for big deep water ships. The place was huge and Harry was preparing himself for sticker shock until he saw the inside. Fire and water damage everywhere you looked, the second floor looked like it was going to cave in at any second. In fact they couldn't even look at the second or third floors because the staircases were condemned. He was about to ask the price when the ghost of fat man in a three piece suit and glasses floated down from the second floor.

"Oh, hello. You must be looking to buy the building. Percival Addington Bentham Stratford the fifth at your service." Said the fat ghost in a stuffy English accent that would grate on anyone, but Harry found it delightful. It reminded him of Nearly headless nick.

"Good to make your acquaintance Percival, I'm Harry Steel. I was thinking about buying the warehouse." Harry said bowing to the ghost which was the right way to greet someone with out a form.

"Marvelous, you would be the first potential buyer in months and the first one I've been able to talk to in a while. This is a great location but it does need some repairs as you can see. But it's ready to be a factory again. You do plan on opening a factory here right? At one time this was the best textile factory in the whole Northeast." Percival said.

"I was planing on turning the second and third floors into apartments and this first floor into a warehouse for my magical shipping company." Harry said.

"What a waist Harry this place is prime for a good manufacturing house. With the deep water dock and the amount of floor space you could put a few hundred people to work in this building." Percival said.

"True but i have nothing to make." Harry said.

"Textiles Harry! Textiles! You know what separates man from beast? The clothes on your back. That's why putting an animals in clothes is funny to us as humans. We see the truth. We are but beasts that talk. It's the clothes that make the man. Back five years ago before this place burnt down this first floor was where we stored the raw bolts of fabric and hides of leather. This area back here was where shoe makers made some of the nicest shoes in the world. Upstairs two hundred seamstress made shirts, pants, dresses, jackets, and coats. On the third floor we had thirty hat makers working overtime to keep up with the demand for top notch top hats." Percival said looking sad.

"Textiles." Harry said rolling the idea around his head.

"Textiles. They are everything. The future is clothes made in factories like this one and shipped to stores around the country. Tailors are a dying profession Harry. I'm telling you, one day Harry you're going to have to try to find a tailor. Handmade is the past. One man in a shop making one suit at a time is a flawed way of doing things. The future Harry. The future." The ghost said.

"You know what? You're right. I can see it happening already. It's a trend that's washing over the world. Industrialization is changing the way we do business and with my shipping company i can get bolts of cloth at a rock bottom price. But we need to get the shipping company up and running to keep costs low. I'll make you a deal Percival, i'll buy the building and have the goblins fix it up back to good nick. Well use the third floor for apartments for my workers, and the first floor for the shipping company for now but as soon as we get things going we'll start bringing in people and get our clothing factory up and running on the second floor. What do you say Percy?" Harry asked.

"I think it's the best thing i could hope for at the moment." Percy said with a smile that matched Harry's and Bone Breaker's.

"Good, i need to talk about this with my family and business partners but you can't argue with the truth. We need to keep up with the times." Harry said.

"We need to get the paperwork started." Bone Breaker said.

"We need to get going but keep an eye on the place Percy. By this time next year we might be looking to hire seamstresses, hat makers, and cobblers." Harry said as they walked out.

"Will do Harry, you'll see! Textiles! It's the future!" Percy said called after the two as they walked back to the carriage.

"Now you see why i brought you here first. This place has been on the market for five years. It's a prime location and a huge property, but Percy in there is a real piece of work." Bone Breaker said.

"But he's not wrong. Soon no one will go to a tailor and get hand made clothes." Harry said really kicking around the idea of a clothing factory.

"True. Either way the place is rock bottom cheap. That big warehouse is on the market for 400 galleons but i know i can talk the title holder down to 350. Maybe lower. You never know with this sort of thing. The title holder might be willing to take even less just to not have to keep paying taxes on the property. The thing is i've never really tried to talk him down because no one is willing to put up with Percy back there." Bone breaker said.

"Well i am. He's a delightful chap that has his eye on the future. Unless you have an even better deal on the island then that's all i need to see." Harry said with a smile.

"Great! I've been wanting to have this meeting for two years now. Let's get a meeting with the title holder and see if we can work something out." Bone breaker said.

An hour and one very long back and forth negotiation later and Harry was the proud owner of the old haunted clothing factory for 325 gold galleons or $8,125. For an extra 75 gallons the goblins would gut the factory and rebuild it with magical Heating, plumbing, lighting, and elevators. They would also rebuild the dock and add a new magical crane. He added another 16 one bedroom apartments to the list of perks of working for Blackwell and Steel Shipping. All in he was looking at $10,000 for a piece of land that would be worth a hundred times that in the future. It was just before eleven when they got back so Harry looked around the alley and made a few small purchases. Unfortunately he could not find a shop that sold the sword pens.

Harry left the alley in search of curio shops and found a few with magical items. Most of it was junk he was collecting to keep out of the hands of unsuspecting muggles but he did find another pocket knife with a razor edge and a enchanted colt cloverleaf that had the same silencing enchantment his Operative guns had. Harry added the gun to his inside jacket pocket. He also found an umbrella with straight wood handle. It took him a minute to figure it out but he found the catch and the handle came off revealing a 30 inch rapier sword blade. Harry had lunch at Delmonico's before he put on his cloak and got on his broom. He stopped off at the factory and put five portkey stickers in the alley next to the building. He then got back on his broom and flew right to Boston.

The trip took just under an hour. In his plane the trip would have taken 15 minutes but if you took away the time it took to fly to New Jersey on his broom, get his plane out, fly to Boston, find a landing zone outside the city, and then fly to the city. This was faster and he was able to fly right to the bank and skip all the hassle. He walked into the bank just before two and with his name at the door he was shown to the Boston branch manager's office only to be very disappointed.

Property values were sky high in the city and around the harbor due to population explosion after the civil war. The best option was an old beat to hell small warehouse on the waterfront that was half the size of his Chicago warehouse but twice the price of his New York warehouse before renovations. The issue was, there were no good options like the gem he found in New York, which was a total miracle. He should have paid three times with he did for that place.

The good news was they had time to telegram other cities on the east coast looking for something to please their new very rich client. He had a list of warehouses that fit his needs at great values in the south. Places like Savannah Georgia, Jacksonville Florida, Charlotte North Carolina, and Baltimore Maryland. If those were no good they had a lot of good options in San Francisco California. They also had a line on options in Portsmouth England, Calais France, Barcelona Spain.

Harry stepped out and called Hermione to give her the news. They had prime real estate in New York but they were shit out of luck in Boston. He asked her about the other options and she handed the phone off to Abby. He gave her the list and she made a face.

"Those are all pretty bad options Harry but Savannah Georgia is your best bet. Jacksonville is going to burn to the ground in 1901 like Chicago did. And next year Charlotte gets hit by an earthquake that pretty much levels the city. Savannah just keeps plugging along at an average pace. San Francisco is good but only if we set up ports in Asia for the future. Otherwise most of the gold and silver being pulled out of the hills is being sent across the country on armored trains. In a few years the great freeze is going to hit Florida and kill off most of the citrus trees. We'll be able to buy land there for pennies. For now stick with the upper eastern corridor to Europe. Another option would be the gold coast of Africa." She said.

"Right. Sounds good. Thank's Abs you're a huge asset to the team." Harry said.

"You're very welcome Harry. I'm happy i can help." She said blushing a cute red around the cheeks.

Harry walked back into the bank and set up an appointment with a bank manager in Savannah for the next morning before he headed into town. He searched junk shops for an hour finding a few bits of junk and some dark objects but nothing of use. Feeling really disappointed with his trip to Boston he hopped on his broom and flew a few minutes up state to Salem. The town itself was nothing to write home about but in the air he could spot the magical school and the town nearby that was covered under wards. Harry flew to the building that acted as the front gates of the town and landed, he ditched his cloak and broom in his bag and walked into the Drowned Witch pub.

One would think It was a sick name for a pub guarding the entrance of the magical town of Salem but in reality no real witches were killed during the witch hunts. It was a tool of the male populace to keep the thinking women of their town in check. Harry walked into the pub and smiled at the familiar look of the place. All these pubs looked the same. He walked right to the back door of the pub and into the the town of Salem. Harry looked at the little shops lining the town's one street. Salem was a lot like Hogsmeade. It was a small shopping district setup to support the school and it's students. Harry stopped off in the stationary shop to ask about the pen and again he came up empty handed, but as he was walking out of the shop the owner pointed him to the last shop on the left side of the road. It was a junk shop and Harry got excited.

Harry entered the junk shop and he was in magical junk heaven. Harry looked around and saw old books, and watches and tea sets and pens and quills. He found a few nice things in the shop like a green and white marble wizard's chess set, and a book on old enchantments. He found a nice bracelet made of silver that detected wards. He asked the nice older lady behind the counter if she had the pen.

"I don't know. It sounds familiar to me. I'd have to look in the back. If it's dangerous i don't keep it out for the kids to buy. If you want to come into the back room you can look at what i have." She said.

Harry followed her through a door and saw a shelf marked weapons. On the shelves were boxes marked Knives, Swords, Wands, Miss, and Guns.

Harry helped her take down the box marked Swords. It was a long box and it had about a dozen swords in the box. Harry looked at them and found a silver rapier with a nice basket.

"How much?" Harry asked.

"Look at the tag, that's what i paid for it. You can have it for that much. It's not like i'm going to sell it to the kids and almost no one comes looking for blades." She said.

Harry looked at the tag hanging off the scabbard, 1 sickle, 5 knuts. Harry did the math in his head. $3.75. Not bad for a nice piece like this. Harry set it aside and looked back in the box there were a few nice blades but he had no real use for them. He got to the bottom of the box and again came up short. No sword pen. Harry put the box back and took down the knife box. There were five knives in the box. None of them really caught his eye. He did take the large bowie knife out. It was thick and enchanted razor sharp and would make a nice belt knife. It was 8 knuts, $2. Harry traded the knife box for the gun box. There were three revolvers in the box. He found a Whitney arms .22 short like Tommy's in the box, but unlike his this one had the barrel cut off just past the frame making it very small. The tag said 1 sickle. He set it aside. He pulled out the Lemat revolver and looked at it for a few seconds before it hit him what was different. There was a hinge under the shotgun barrel and a schofield style latch at the top by the sights. He broke the revolver open and saw the cylinder was bored through and so was the shotgun barrel which meant you could flip open the gun and load 9 cartridges of what looked like .44 or .41 and one 20 gauge shotgun shell. It also looked like they redesigned the grip to fit better in the hand. The tag said 5 sickles and 5 knots, $13.75, a bargain for the amount of work this must have taken a wizard. The last gun was a plane colt army cap and ball gun.

Harry took down the last box labeled Miss. inside was a pocket watch, a dragon tooth necklace, a few self lighting pipes, brass knuckles, and a wood box. Harry looked at the pocket watch. It looked like a cheap brass pocket watch, he opened it and on the inside of the lid was a magical photo of a blond girl in her early twenties. She was top less and making faces at the camera. Harry closed it up and laughed. The tag said 3 knuts and for $.75 it was worth it to see Neville's face when he handed it to him. He took the brass knuckles with the stinging hex on them for Tommy, 2 knuts $.50. He picked up the wooden box and opened it. Inside was a wood pen with a gold button. He took the pen out of the box and hit the button. Out shot a 35 inch fencing blade with a needle sharp tip. The box said 4 sickles, $10. It could have been twice that price. It was the victory of finding the thing that made it special. Harry took all of his things up to the counter and in the end his total came to 1 galleon, 4 sickles, 1 knut or $35.25. Harry paid and walked out with a big smile on his face.

He walked to the gates of the school and stuck a portkey sticker on the ground in a small stand of trees close by. He looked at his watch. It was just past four. He portkeyed back to Chicago and landed on the roof across the street from his building which was being worked on by ten short fat men. He saw Tommy sitting on the sidewalk watching the work being done next to him was his iron pot, stack of blankets, and his candle lantern. Harry popped down the street in an alley next to a junk shop. He walked in and found an old beat up black doctor's bag that was $.05. He found a wool scarf and leather glove and took those too. He was about to walk to the register when he saw a beat up wood folding chair in the corner of the shop next to a small folding table. He took them up to the front of the shop and grabbed the deck of playing cards off the shelf by the register. It came up to $1.85. Harry took his purchases into the alley and cast a repairo at the bag and it came back to it's black leather shine. He did the same with the rest of his purchase. He then put an expansion charm on the bag and put everything inside and there was still room to spare. Tommy could sleep in the bag he made it so big. He popped back to his building and came out next to Tommy.

"Watching them work is boring." Harry said making Tommy sit up and his hand shoot to his gun. "Good reaction time kid. Here, i got you some more stuff. I also got you a bag to keep it all in." Harry said handing the bag to Tommy who looked inside with slack jawed amazement.

"Thank you Sir." Tommy said.

"Put the rest of your stuff inside and come on. We're going shopping for some better clothes and were going to get something to eat. Did you eat today?" Harry asked.

"Yes. i went to the bank and handed the teller the letter you gave me and he sent me to an office with another short man. He read the letter and handed me four dollars! I went into the diner down the street and had eggs and pancakes and i still have $3.50 left. I had the last meat pie for lunch." Tommy said.

"Good i'm going to show you the best way to save money and still get things you need. It's going to be your first lesson in magic. I don't think you'll be able to cast it without a wand but it's good to know." Harry said taking the boy into a junk shop with clothes.

He picked out a better suit and he got him some boxers when he found out he didn't have any. He also got him a few shirts and a few pairs heavier canvas pants he also grabbed a black bowler hat. All of it was ill fitting and beat to shit but it was cheap. $2.65 for the whole lot Harry cast the reparo charm on all of it and a few charms and it was like new. They walked into a nice restaurant and Harry sent Tommy to the bathroom to change when he came out he looked like he had some money and it showed on his face. Carrying his small doctor's bag in his dark grey tweed suit with his bowler hat he looked like a doctor heading out for a house call. They got a booth and Harry ordered meat and potatoes for the both of them. He also ordered a bottle of coke for the kid and a bottle of wine for himself.

"Got something else for you kid, i got it on Boston." He said handing him the brass knuckles and a small pocket knife with a charmed blade. "There, if someone gives you shit bust them in the mouth with the knuckles, as for the knife, every kid needs one.

"Thank you Sir." Tommy said looking at the knife.

"Be careful with that, it's charmed to be razor sharp. You can cut your finger right off with it." Harry warned.

"Good to know." Tommy said putting the knife in his pocket.

"How did it go last night? Did you hit the target?" Harry asked.

"I sure did. Got it a few times by the end. I figured out the gun shoots a bit low and to the left so i aimed high and to the right and i get it every time." Tommy said with pride.

"Good. How did you sleep?" Harry asked. The truth was Harry felt bad for leaving the kid by himself, but he wanted him to earn his keep just like he did.

"Great. It was a bit drafty but the blankets were nice and warm and the fire kept up for a good long time." Tommy said.

"Great. I put a table and chair in your bag so you don't have to sit on the ground and i also added a deck of cards to keep you occupied." Harry said as their food came.

"I had plenty to do, i had my patrols every hour." Tommy said digging into his plate with a little less savagery then he did last night.

They ate and made small talk for a while and when they were finished with dinner they walked back to the warehouse as the gas lamps were just coming on and the goblins were leaving.

"We got the new roof on and the second floor built. We left the old wood in the corner like you asked" He said to Tommy as he walked out.

"Thank you for letting me know. Will you be by again at eight tomorrow?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, it's when we start." The goblin said.

"Good to know." Tommy said taking out his folding table and chair and setting them up in the corner.

Harry watched him unfolded his blanket bed and set out his cast iron pot. He picked up a few bits of charred wood from the pile and using his knife he cut them down to fit the pot. He light a stick and stuck it under the other sticks like Harry showed him and soon he had a raging fire going. He changed out of his nice suit into a heavy pants and shirt and pulled on his coat, hat, and scarf. He put on his left glove and light his lantern. He looked at Harry.

"I'm going to patrol the building now, it's seven." he said before walking out the front doors. He locked them behind him and Harry laughed.

Harry felt an odd feeling, he didn't know what it was but he figured it out when Tommy came back in a few minutes later. He stood at the line on the floor, pulled out his gun and shot the target. Six shots, six hits. Harry knew right then what he was feeling. Pride. Harry was proud of the kid. Tommy dropped the cylinder out of the gun, emptied the spent brass in one of the empty cartridge boxes where the rest of the spent brass was and reloaded. He stood at the line again, six shots six hits. Harry got up and patted the boy on the back.

"Good job kid. Keep that up. Try stepping back more next time. Figure out how fare you can go back and still hit the target. Take care of yourself and i'll be back soon to see how you're doing. When you run out of bullets go get some more at the store. Here's five dollars for ammo and cokes." Harry said casting a monitoring charm on the boy and linking it to his watch.

"Thank you Sir. I'll keep practicing." Tommy said pocketing the coins and sitting at his table.

Harry left and headed back to the farm outside of town using the button he left in the trees. He opened the tent and sat on the couch again. He sorted his new junk into boxes and turned on the tv. He looked through Hermione's movie collection on her hard drive and found Love Actually. He laid on the couch and pulled out the brass watch. He popped it opened and looked at the hand marked Tommy. The hand was pointed to work. Harry looked at his pocket watch. It was 7:27. He looked at the watch again and it still said work. Harry set the two watches next to each other on the table and watched the movie. He kept glancing at the watches and the hand never moved from work. He figured the watch was broken or not working right he would have to have Hermione look at it later. He made it all the way to the part where Hugh Grant dances like a fool before he passed out.

For the third day in a row Harry's phone beeped and he rolled out of bed before the sun came up. He followed his routine the same as the two days before and he made the thousand mile flight south to Savannah Georgia by half past eight. He landed in a field and broomed it to the bank. He met a goblin named Hook Nose. He was shown a nicer warehouse next to the water. Harry pretty much slept through the conversation of price and how much it would cost to get it up to good nick. He didn't know he got a good deal until he signed the paperwork. 12,000 square foot and two floor warehouse with another ten apartments came to 75 galleons, 50 for the property and 25 for repairs, or $1,875 all together. Harry popped back to the new warehouse and set up five portkey stickers and a few buttons.

By this point he was tired and he wanted to pop right back to his cube in Nevada but he figured he was in a new city and he should see the sights. He hit up a few shops, but didn't buy anything. He found one junk shop and bought a few junk dark objects. He was about to call it a day when he found an old book store brimming with magical books. He looked around a for a bit to find anything that caught his eye but nothing really did. He was about to call it a day when he saw an old book on enchantments. He flipped through it and found a whole chapter on living gargoyles. One $2 book later he portkeyed back to the cube. When he landed in the front hallway he saw Hermione and Abby deep in a stack of books and paperwork.

"You two bookworms are going to shit when you see what i just found." Harry said dropping the book on the table in front of Hermione.

"Harry! Your back. What did you bring me?" Hermione asked reading the spine of the book. "Are you kidding me?" She asked flipping to the section on Gargoyles. She skimmed the page and screamed as she hugged Harry. "This is exactly what i needed!" She said.

"So you can make living gargoyles with that book?" Harry asked.

"Yes you will have the most low maintenance horse in history as soon as i figure it out." She said.

"Instead of a horse can you make a guard dog?" Harry asked.

"Sure, for you?" She asked.

"No, for Tommy." Harry said dropping into the chair at the head of the table.

"Tommy? Who the hell is Tommy?" Hermione asked.

"He's the orphan i took in off the street of Chicago." Harry said pulling out his watch. Tommy's hand still said work.

"What do you mean took in?" Hermione asked.

"Like i got him off the streets. I'm a rich guy, he's a street orphan, according to Charles Dickens i can just sort of take him in right?" Harry said with a shrug.

"I don't know, probably, where is the boy?" Hermione asked.

"Back in Chicago. I paid him to watch the warehouse. He's a good kid." Harry said.

"How old is Tommy?" Hermione said.

"About ten. He's not sure he's never had a birthday." Harry said.

"You left a ten year old alone in an empty warehouse?!" Hermione asked.

"Relax, he's got a gun." Harry said.

"You gave him a gun!?" She yelled.

"No he had a gun." Harry said.

"Start from the beginning." Hermione said she said holding her head.

Harry told her about Tommy and when he was done talking Hermione looked livid.

"Harry go back to Chicago and bring that boy home right now!" Hermione said.

"I can't Mia. He can't see this place. He doesn't know i'm from the future. He's fine by himself. That's why i wanted you to make him a guard dog so he has someone to keep him company." Harry said.

"Harry i don't care. He can be sworn to secrecy. He's got magic he can swear an oath of secrecy. Go get the boy and bring him home." She said.

"Abby tell her we can't do that." Harry said looking to the younger woman for support.

"Harry i think you should go get the kid. He's so young, i can't believe you left him there to fend for himself." Abby said.

"Fine, i'll go get the kid." Harry said pulling out a button and vanishing.

Neville walked in at that point covered in dust.

"I hit a major gold vein and i need a bunch more trunks. Anything going on here?" He asked pulling three shrunken boxes of gold ore out of his pocket.

"Harry adopted a young boy and left him in a warehouse in Chicago, alone, with a gun." Hermione said.

"That's Harry for you." Neville said pulling out three more boxes and setting them on the table.

Harry appeared in the front hallway with Tommy holding his bag. He lead the boy into the dining room. The whole time he walked through the house his eyes were wide. As soon as Hermione saw the boy she came around the table and hugged him.

"Look at you. You're so small. Have you eaten? Let's run you a hot bath and get you something to eat. You're so skinny you look like Harry at that age." She said looking the boy over. For his part Tommy looked freaked out and uncomfortable with Hermione poking and prodding him.

"Hermione let up you're smothering the boy. Hey kid, i'm Neville." Neville said holding out his hand to the boy.

"Tommy. Good to make your acquaintance." Tommy said with a smile.

"Oh he's soo cute." Hermione said with a big grin as she hugged him again.

"Mia! Back off the boy." Neville said patting his wife on the back. "Come on kid, let me show you where the bathroom is. I like your hat by the way. Very cool." Neville said leading the boy out of the room.

"Neville is the only normal one of us here." Harry said.

"He's you at eleven. He even has messy hair and ill fitting clothes." Hermione said with a nostalgic look in her eyes.

"I know, it's why i got him off the streets." Harry said pulling the box of gifts out of his bag.

"We need to get him into Salem next year. He looks to be about the right age." Abby said as Neville came back into the room with a girn.

"He's you at that age Harry." Neville said laughing.

"I know. I have gifts for you guys." Harry said opening the box he passed out the nice watches he got them.

He also handed out the locket which he still didn't look inside, and the knives. He showed Neville the Lemat revolver he found and they decided they would need to see if Smith the gunsmith could reproduce it. He put the chess set on the table and handed the silver rapier to his sister who was the only one of them that was classically trained in fencing. He handed the umbrella with the sword hidden inside to Abby. He handed Neville the pocket watch with the topless girl and watched his eyes go big when he opened it.

"Wow. i can't keep this." Neville said handing it back to him.

"What?" Hermione said taking the watch. She popped it open and her eyes went wide. "Oh my. She's… gifted." She said handing the watch to Abby wow looked at it and blushed.

"It's a joke, i'll give it to the boy when he's older. And for the crowning achievement. I give to you, my brother. The mighty pen." Harry said handing him the wood box.

"Nice, a wood pen." Neville said taking the pen out of the box.

"Hold it facing down and hit the gold button." Harry said pulling his pen out of his pocket.

"Okay, this is not going to blow up in my face right?" Neville asked hitting the button. When the fencing blade came out he was shocked and excited. "This is the coolest pen ever!" Neville said.

"No what's cool is that we have two of them!" Harry said extending his pen sword and swatting Neville's blade.

"This is so cool." Neville said hitting Harry back. The blades made that fencing rod hitting rod sound and soon they were fighting across the room.

"Boys! You're going to break something! Stop it!" Hermione said shaking her head but she had a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

"Oh relax Mia, we're having fun, it's the most fun I've had all day." Harry said batting back Neville's blade and giving him a small poke on the arm.

"Shit! That hurt." Neville said healing his arm with a wave of his hand.

"Suck it up you big baby." Harry shot back to which Neville returned the favor a second later with a poke to the thigh.

"Fuck! That does hurt. I take it back. These blades go in too easy and too deep." Harry said fixing his leg.

"I told you. These are not toys. We need to get some of those fake swords." Neville said hitting the button and closing his sword.

"They are called practice foils and if you two are really interested in learning i'm willing to teach you both." Hermione said.

"Can i get it on this?" Abby asked.

"Sure." Hermione said going back to her book.

"So what are we doing next?" Harry asked dropping into his seat.

"Well we have infrastructure and we have capital, we need to hire workers and we need to start making business contacts. To do that Abby and i need to get moving on that but first we need to get these gargoyles made. Really we're stalled out for now. The best thing you can do is help Neville with his mining operation." Hermione said.

"Mining operation?" Harry asked.

"I looked into being a bounty hunter but it's not worth the time and effort for the money it would bring in. Instead i used Abby's book of mining maps, my broom, point me spells, and the natural landscape and found a gold and silver mine about a hundred miles south west of here. I claimed the land for $75 and using magic cutting charms and a block of C4 i strip mined a huge hole and I've been summoning gold and silver ore for the last two days. You see that stack of two dozen boxes stacked by that wall? Those are all full of gold, silver, and copper ore." Neville said as Tommy walked into the dining room in a fluffy white bathrobe that was too long by about two foot and a wet head.

"I've never felt so clean." He said with a deliriously happy grin.

"Look at you in that big bath robe. You look so cute." Hermione said brushing his wet hair back off his face. "I can't believe Harry left you in a warehouse by yourself." she said giving Harry a dirty look. "Come on, let's get you something to eat and some better clothes. We'll steal some of Harry's suits. With some charms work we can make it all fit you." She said.

"How about you keep working on the gargoyles and Neville and i will take care of this and he has clothes. I just bought him clothes." Harry said.

"Rags Harry, not good stuff." She said.

"He's a boy Hermione, boy's get dirty so they were stuff they can get dirty in. We're going to be mining, i'm changing out of these fancy clothes too. Come on kid, Uncle Neville here has a gold mine. You can earn your allowance by helping us pile gold ore in boxes. It should be fun. We get to blow stuff up with explosives and there's a chance to shoot stuff like lizards and snakes with your gun while we work." Harry said leading the boy out of the room.

"He's not father material yet but the more time he spends with the boy the better he'll get." Hermione said with a big grin.

"That little boy is cute in a Oliver way." Abby said.

"Harry used to look like that. If Tommy had green eyes and glasses they could be the same boy. Now let's get back to work, this looks like the book we need. I'll make you a copy and we'll tackle this problem over the weekend, i want to take a trip to the school on Monday to get a list of people we can hire." Hermione said looking at the book.

"Sounds good to me, i'm almost done with a list of dates and events we have to look out for." Abby said.

The boys came back all dressed in work clothes. Jeans, work shirts, and boots. Harry had his wide brimmed hat on and his gun belt. They grabbed 20 more shrunken trunks and headed out the door into to the noon sun. They took a portkey that landed them next to a big open pit a hundred foot across and ten foot deep.

They found three men trying to take gold ore out of the big hole with buckets and ropes. Two men were in the hole and one man was loading the buckets of ore into a cart pulled by two beat up looking horses. Harry pulled his guns and Neville and Tommy followed his lead a second later. Harry shot the cart wheel dropping the cart on the ground and startling the horses which dumped the ore on the ground. This got the men's attention and they saw they were looking down the barrels of five guns so they put their hands up.

"Looks like we got ourself a bunch of thieves!" Harry called out. The man next to the half empty cart reached for the gun on his belt and Harry shot the ground next to his foot. "Ahahah. I wouldn't do that if i was you. Not if you want to walk away from this situation alive. And you will be walking away from here. i can guarantee you that. Neville, why don't you go take our friend's gun. You two, drop your gun belts. If your hand gets close to a gun you lose the hand." Harry said.

When they were all unarmed Harry made the guy at the top of the pit help the other two out of the pit. When they were standing there Harry took the gun belt off the last man and handed it to Tommy. He patted the men down and pulled long bowie knife out of one of their boots.

"Okay fellas, this is where you learn the dangers of stealing. It's what i like to call a teachable moment. You came here looking for gold. You brought a cart, two horses, and bucket's. You're going to leave here without any of that. You also lost your guns and your canteens. Now i'm guessing you boys came here from Eureka. The town is a hundred miles that way. Start walking.

"You're real tough with that gun." The biggest man of the group and obvious leader said.

"I am, you keep talking you'll walk without boots." Harry said.

"I challenge you to a duel." The leader said.

"You're going to be a pain in the ass aren't you? You're going to be the type to make it back to town and try some shit later. I'll make you a deal. Take this knife back, and if you can kill me then my brother here will let you take the horses and the gold." Harry said tossing the knife at the bigger man's feet. "I'll even fight you with a knife." Harry said taking off his gun belt and handed it to Tommy he pulled the large bowie knife off the belt and held it in his hand.

"I'm going take pleasure in guttin you boy." The big man said bending over to pick up the knife. As soon as he was bent over Harry threw the knife in his hand into the top of his head pinning the man's beat up hat to his head and killing him instantly. Harry walked over to the dead man and pulled his knife out of the dead man's skull and wiped the blood off on the dead man's back.

"Anyone else got some shit to say?" Harry asked looking at the two very frightened men. "Good start walking. And take him with you. And if you survive the trip and come looking for me remember what you saw here today. I did that with a fucking knife. Imagine with i can do with my gun." Harry said putting his knife into the leather sheath on his belt and putting his gun belt back on as the two men came over and grabbed their dead friend and started dragging him away.

"Tommy, i want you to take away two things from what you just saw. One is don't fuck with a man you don't know. The other thing i want you to take away from this is, if someone tests you like that you put them down hard and you put them down quick." Harry said vanishing the puddle of blood.

"Also, the only fair fight is the one you walk away from." Neville said.

"That's right." Harry said summing the gun belts from the pit. He looked at the two colt lightnings and a peacemaker. He took one of the Lighting gun belts and put it around Tommy's waist and shrank it to fit him. "Why don't you go try to shoot that colt over there. Try hitting the cactus. Remember to use both hands, this shoots a .38 long colt. It's about ten times the kick of your gun." Harry said putting the nickel plated lighting with the nicer wood grips in the holster and ruffling the boy's hair with a smile.

"Okay. Thank's for the gun belt!" He said running over to the cactus. He walked off ten feet and pulled the gun out. He held it with two hands and pulled the trigger. The gun bucked in his hands and almost knocked him over. "Wow! Now that's a kick!" He said.

"Try holding it like this" Harry said adjusting his grip. "And take a wider stance with your right foot back a bit." Harry said patting the boy on the shoulder. Tommy tried again and did much better. "There you go. You have about 200 rounds between these two belts. Have fun." Harry said with a grin as he walked over to his brother the smile fell off his face.

"I should have put wards up but i'm not good at that and Hermione was busy." Neville said looking pissed at himself.

"I don't care about that. Nev, you think i was wrong to kill in front of the boy?" Harry asked.

"I don't think so. You said the boy was living in the streets. He's had to have seen a lot worse. It's a tough time Harry. I think it's fine. We'll have Hermione talk to the boy later." Neville said.

"Yeah. Yeah it should be fine. The thing is I've been second guessing every decision i make when it comes to the kid. When i was his age i was independent and tough. I killed my first teacher at eleven and i turned out just fine." Harry said watching the boy take shots at the cactus.

"I think second guessing everything makes you a good parent. It means you're thinking about everything." Neville said.

"Parent?" Harry asked.

"Yeah you fool, what did you think you are? You took the kid off the street and brought him home. That make you responsible for the kid and what do we call someone who take full responsibility of a young child?" Neville said with a smirk.

"Yeah, that about sums it up. I wonder if the kid sees it that way? To him i might just be his boss. The guy that pays him to work. It's the way i started this off." Harry said.

"Ask him." Neville said.

"No, i'll just keep looking after the boy for a while and see how he responds to it." Harry said watching the boy reload the gun.

"Well if you're not going to talk to the boy help me box up this ore. We need to find a place to melt this down and refine it." Neville said fixing the cart.

"We can do it with magic. I know the spells." Harry said.

"What?" Neville asked.

"Yeah, it's a set of spells that are kind of hard to cast. One spell holds the the objects in the air and turns everything into a liquid floating mass. The other spell separates the different materials and forms them into whatever you think of. It take a good bit of magic to cast and an ass ton of concentration but it works. And the more power you throw at it the better it works. i've used it a few times to disappear bodies. I used the first spell to melt the bodies and the second spell to remove the carbon and form a diamond. You're left with a small stone and funky smelling air as the oxygen, hydrogen, and methane escape. It leaves no trace." Harry said summoning the golf ball sized chunks of ore by the trunk load and dropping it into the expanded trunk by his feet.

"Harry, for the record. Don't tell that story to the kid." Neville said lifting ore out by the bucket load and adding it to the trunk.

"Right, good call. So what do we do after we get all the gold ore out?" Harry asked.

"We get the silver out, and the copper out. Then we lift the rest of the rock out and toss it over there. Once we clear the the rock we cut a grid into the rock about a foot deep and put a few small balls of C4 in the lines in a few places and blast it with a bombarda to set off the explosives. I duck under a shield charm after that as bits of rock rain down for a few seconds." Neville said.

"Cool, the kid will love that." Harry said without thinking about it but Neville smiled.

They spent the next ten minutes summoning ore out of the hole before Harry lifted the rest of the rock out with a wave of his wand and tossed it on the big pile off to the side. He called Tommy over and they sat and had MREs for lunch. Harry got Mexican style chicken and rice, Neville got beef stew, and Tommy got meatballs and marinara. Tommy was amazed by the plastic packaging and spoon but the flameless heater was pure magic to him.

"And this is not magic?" Tommy asked as the water reacted with the heater to warm their meal.

"No it's the wave of the future. New tech that's going to change the way soldiers eat in the field." Harry said sharing a look with Neville. Harry conjured a wide brimmed black hat and handed it to Tommy. "To keep the sun out of your eyes." Harry said.

"Thanks. This sure is a nice hat." Tommy said changing out his cap for the hat.

"Well it's temporary. It will go away after a while, but it will hold together long enough for us to head into town and get you a real hat. And some more .38 LC. i saw you getting some good hits with that gun." Harry said.

"It was hard to shoot at first but i got the hang of it. I like it. But the handles are a bit loose." Tommy said pulling the gun out.

"Maybe we can get you some better handles for it or a better one altogether. There's a gun shop in town run by a wizard. We need to talk to him today anyways. We can sell these two horses." Harry said.

"How are we going to get them back?" Neville asked.

"Shit, this is why we can't have live horse." Harry said.

"Can't we just use a button like we used to get out here?" Tommy asked.

"No, if the horses get freaked out, which they will because they're big dumb animals, and they start flailing around they might end up landing on us. Or breaking a leg and in that case we have to shot them in the head." Neville said.

"You think something that big can survive a transfiguration? I mean it works on humans." Harry said.

"There's one way to find out. We stun them, transfigure them and the wagon, portkey back, and drop the transfiguration. If they're alive when we get there it works, if not?" Neville said with a shrug.

"Good point, let's get another layer of gold, set up wards and head back into town." Harry said.

Harry and Neville went about cutting a new one foot grid in the rock. With the two of them it went very fast. They stuck little golf ball sized bits of C4 in a dozen spots on the grid. They popped back out of the hole and Harry hit the grid with an overpowered bombarda setting off the shock sensitive explosives. He then covered himself and Tommy with a shield. As little rocks fell from the sky. When the last rock bounced off Harry's shield he and Neville went about filling trunks. When there was no more ore left in the bowel they set up basic wards like notice me not charms and muggle repelling charms. Harry stunned the two horses and transfigured the horses and cart into a small toy cart with two horses and handed it to Tommy. They set up a new set of portkeys for the next trip and headed back to the cube. Harry walked outside and dropped the transfiguration. He enervated the horses and they both got up looking confused.

Harry tied up the horses to a rock and went inside the cube. He saw Neville and Tommy stacking the trunks by the wall and the two girls reading and drawing runes sets out only for the other one to scratch something off and add something else. Harry checked the kitchen and saw his sister left a mess. He was running low on basic items so he made a list. In the dining room.

"I'm headed into town to sell the horses and cart. We also need things like sugar, eggs, milk, and flower. You want to come with me kid?" Harry asked.

"I do. I want to get a real hat like yours." Tommy said adjusting his hat.

"I do owe you a real hat. Let me get some things from my room and we'll head out." Harry said patting the boy on the back as he walked by.


	4. Chapter 4

Harry and Tommy walked out of the cube and once they shut the door the cube shrank down to it's two inch form. Tommy got his first look at the small black box they were living in.

"All that space is in that little black box? How? I mean is it always that small?" Tommy asked.

"Magic, kid. Magic. You'll see soon kid, that Magic is well, magical. Bad explanation I know but there are no words to describe it better. It can do amazing things. It can also do horrible things. Spells that are used for one thing can be used for other things." Harry said getting into the cart.

"Like what?" Tommy asked.

"Come on I'll see if I can explain it better on the way to town." Harry said pulling Tommy into the wagon. Harry started the horses going and soon figured out how to drive the wagon.

"Where was i?" Harry asked the boy as they headed up the road a mile to town.

"Using spells for other things." Tommy said with a smile.

"Right. Well you watched as we summoned gold ore out of the pit right? And you saw how I could pick up huge trucks… wagons full of rocks right? Well imagine if I lifted those rocks and tossed that big mess of rocks at someone? It would hurt real bad. We used a cutting charm to cut lines in the ground. Again I could cut a man in half with that spell. But it's not all bad I'm just giving you examples of misuse. Anything's a weapon if you're in a fight. Back when I was in school just five years older than you, your aunt Hermione, uncle Neville, and a few of our friends got into a fight with a group of dark wizards. They were adults with years of magical training in dark powerful spells. Us kids fought them off for a good long time until help arrived and we even took a few of them down with spells we learned in school." Harry said as they approached the small horse corral at the edge of town.

They stopped off at the stables and sold the two beat up work horses and the old cart for $65. $25 apiece for the horses and $15 for the cart. From there they walked to the haberdashery and picked up two black suits with long jackets, four white shirts, and a wide brimmed hat, and black riding boots for Tommy. Next they headed to the general store and picked up flour, cornmeal, sugar, salted pork, and eggs. Harry was unsure about buying unrefrigerated eggs but the store owner explained that the eggs were sealed with lard and would keep for months. Still Harry bought the dozen eggs picked that day from the local farm along with the three bottles of milk that came from the same farm that day. He asked about meat and was pointed to the farm on the other side of town that had cows for sale. It took Harry a few seconds to catch on but he figured it out. If he wanted good fresh meat out here in Nevada he needed to buy the cow, kill it, and butcher it himself. Harry took his paper bag of goods and walked out of the store. He shrank it and pocketed the bag. Lastly they headed to the gun shop. Smith greeted him with a smile and an enthusiastic handshake.

"Harry my friend. What can I do for you today?" Smith asked.

"Well my boy here has taken a liking to this colt lighting but the handles are a bit loose, I was wondering if you had handles for this colt or better still a nicer lighting revolver all together." Harry asked.

"I have a colt lighting but like most of the stuff in my shop it's shiny as you like to call it. I don't know if you want to buy a gun like that for a young boy. Boy's tend to lose guns." Smith said.

"Smith you should know by now that if it's shiny I want to at least look at it." Harry said putting his hand on Tommy's shoulder.

"Certainly. It's over here in the case." Smith said walking over to the case.

He pulled out a wood box and set it on the counter. Inside was a colt lighting in nickel with ivory handles. It's barrel was cut short to just past the extractor at 3 1/2 inches and a new gold front blade sight was added. The gun was covered in engravings with gold inlay. Even the small screws that held the gun together were gold. Harry took the gun and worked the action a few times, checked the sights, and spun the cylinder. The gun was rock solid. Harry handed the gun to Tommy who took it and copied Harry as best he could. It took all the thumb strength in his small hand to get the hammer back but he worked the action a few times before he handed it back to Harry.

"How much?" Harry asked.

"For a custom piece like that with all the gold and engravings I can let it go for $45" Smith said.

"I'll take it but I want you to add the runes to it. How much is that going to run me?" Harry asked.

"For you I can do it for $5. It's just a small rune set but it has to be added to each part of that gun. It's time consuming work. If any one else was asking to do it I'd charge $15. But you bought up a lot of my stock." Smith said.

"Do it." Harry said reaching into his coin bag and pulling a $50 gold coin out and handing it to Smith. "How long will it take?" Harry asked.

"A few hours, I can work on it tonight and have it for you by noon tomorrow." Smith said.

"Good. I wanted to show you something. I want your opinion on this piece I found in Salem." Harry said pulling the Lemat revolver out of his pocket and expanding it. "What do you think about that?"

"Would you look at that." Smith said popping open the latch and looking at the cylinder.

"Yeah, that's what I said. The cylinder is custom. I'm not sure what caliber it is, but the shotgun barrel is intact and it looks like it was cut to accept a 20 gauge brass shell." Harry said.

"Yes, it's been gapped and bored to take a brass shell, and this looks like it's .38 Long Colt." Smith said grabbing a box of loose round off the counter and trying a .38 long colt. It fit on the first try and it fit in all nine chambers of the cylinder. He grabbed a box of 20 gauge brass shotgun shells and put one in the fat tube in the middle.

"So it's nine shots of .38 LC and a 20 gauge canon. Now that's some fire power." Harry said.

"Have you shot it? Wait a dumb question. You didn't know what bullets it took. You want to try it out back?" Smith asked with a smirk.

"You have a range?" Harry asked.

"Sure do. My land backs up to the mountain. Flip the sign and lock the door." Smith said grabbing a box of .38 LC off the shelf and handing the colt lightning to Tommy. "You can try out your gun too." Smith said as Harry locked up and flipped the sign on the door.

He lead them through the back room where his bed and kitchen was and out the back door to a fenced off open yard butted against the cliff face of the mountain. There were targets set up on boards in front of the rock wall. Smith set the two boxes of bullets down on a table and took aim with the Lemat. He made sure the hammer was flipped up and pulled the trigger. The gun shot flawlessly like it came from the factory. He cocked the hammer and flipped the pin down. He pulled the trigger and the gun bucked in his hand as he blasted a target with buck shot. He broke open the revolver to put in a new shotgun shell and the spent casings shot out like a shotgun extractor which scared the shit out of both Smith and Harry.

"How the hell did they get it to do that? How did it know to only extract those two chambers? And who would have thought to change the handle like that? It's way more comfortable. This gunsmith was a Goddamn genius!" Smith said reloading the gun and handing it to Harry. Harry fired it a few times and loved it. He tried the shotgun shell and it kicked like a mule.

"Man this thing is great." Harry said.

"I would love to strip it down and figure it out." Smith said.

"If you studied it could you make more?" Harry asked.

"I think so. As long as I can figure it out. Can you track down the gunsmith?" How much did you pay for it?" Smith asked.

"I don't know if I can track down the gunsmith, it was sold to a woman that runs a magic junk shop it Salem. I can go back and asked if she remembers. I think I paid like $13 for it. I'm not sure." Harry said.

"Well I can replicate the design easy enough, and I can smith the cylinder and shotgun barrel but this extractor I don't know. I'd have to take it apart and see how it works." Smith said.

"I'll make you a deal, I'll try to track down who made it if you try to replicate it. Do you have any Lemat revolvers in the shop?" Harry asked.

"I have one and it's beat to shit. I've had it for a while and I've been meaning to fix it up. This looks like my next project." Smith said.

"Well if I get you a box of guns can you make me a bunch more? What's the cost for an order like that?" Harry asked.

"Well if you get me the guns and they're in a decent shape then I could probably do a job like that for $25 a gun. But for that price I'll make repairs to the guns, refinish them, add nicer handles, and I'll throw in the unbreakable charm too. I can't make any promises on the extractor though. It might come with a custom made scholfield type deal." Smith said.

"I'll start tracking down guns. I think I have one but I'm not sure." Harry said.

"And I'll get to work on this one." Smith said shaking Harry's hand.

"Now let's let the kid try out his new gun." Harry said patting Tommy on the back.

They stood around and talked for a bit as Tommy worked his way through the rest of the box of rounds they brought out to test the Lemat. When he was finished he had a huge grin on his face.

"Like your new toy?" Harry asked matching his smile.

"I love it. It's so nice and pretty and it shoot so straight." Tommy said.

"Well hand it back to Smith and he'll have it ready for you after lunch tomorrow. You can come out to the pit and shoot stuff. I'm going to need all the .38LC you can spare Smith." Harry said.

"Yes, I can see you're going to need it." Smith said laughing.

"You don't have to buy so much Ammo, I won't shoot that much." Tommy said as Smith stacked boxes of .38LC on the counter from the shelf.

"I don't mind. I want you to keep shooting. Ammo is cheap, you life is not. You get good with that gun and I won't have to worry about you when I'm not around." Harry said.

"Okay." Tommy said.

"Good, now what's the damage?" Harry asked.

"25 boxes of .38LC, $.50 a box, $12.50 and I'll have the gun ready before noon. I'm also getting a shipment of stuff from my suppliers in Colorado tomorrow. Come by, I might have good stuff. We'll see what's in the crate he sends me." Smith said as Harry paid for the ammo, shrank the boxes, and put them in his pocket.

"I'll be by to look. You know me, if it's shiny I have to at least touch it." Harry said leading Tommy out of the shop.

They headed back to the cube at an easy pace and got there just at the sun was setting. They walked in and a big black pitbull almost knocked Tommy to the ground as it licked his face and made the boy laugh. Harry reached down and pet the dog. He expected to it to feel cold and fake but it felt like a real dog.

"Hey boy! Down for a bit let me up." Tommy said and the dog backed off and sat. "Good boy." Tommy said petting the big dog on the head. "Can I keep him?" Tommy asked.

"I think he's your dog. Let's go see what your mad scientist aunts made." Harry said lead the boy and his dog into the dining room. "I see you figured out the dog." Harry said.

"Yes. This is his play form. In this mode he's a cute cuddly low maintenance pet. In his attack form he looks like that." she said pointing to the big metal dog beast being worked on by Abby. It was a six foot tall half bear half dog that looked like it weighed a few hundred pounds of metal with big teeth and claws. Hermione said all this without looking up from her work. She was etching a rune string on a small metal statue of a horse. It was the size of a little girl's toy and she was using a magnifying glass on a tripod to see what she was working on.

"Does he have a name?" Harry asked petting the dog.

"No, but it's not my dog to name, it's Tommy's dog." Hermione said.

"He's mine? I can keep him?" Tommy said hugging the big dog around it's neck.

"Yes, now before you name the dog think about it. This is a magical dog, he's going to be with you forever. You have to come up with a name that will sound good when you're old and calling for your dog." Harry said brushing the hair out of the boy's eyes.

"Okay. I'll think about it. I'll go put away my new clothes." Tommy said.

"That reminds me we have to make a room for you." Harry said.

"He can have the blue room, we're just using the space to open Neville's cube. We'll move to the living room in the corner." Hermione said.

"Good. Then let me show you your room Tommy." Harry said leading the boy to the bedroom.

The room was big. Even with Neville's six foot black cube taking up the corner where the white couch used to be the room was still big. It had deep blue walls, a white ceiling, and white carpet. The bed, two nightstands and tall dresser where white as well. Tommy looked around the big room amazed.

"What do you think? You like it? If you don't like something we can change it easy enough a color change spell for the walls and some new furniture for the room." Harry said.

"I love it. It's so big!" Tommy said looking at the huge king sized bed.

"Why don't you get your things set up in here and I'll move Neville's house out of your room." Harry said shrinking the cube and moving it out of the room and down the hall into the living room where Neville was laying on the big leather couch watching Gladiator.

It was the beginning of the "Are you not entertained" scene so Harry set the cube up in the corner, grabbed a glass of scotch and sat on the couch next to his brother. Maximus was just getting to one of the best lines of the movie when Tommy walked into the room. He saw the 75 inch TV on the wall and he stood there mouth open. Harry turned and saw him. He grabbed the remote off the table and paused the movie. He waved him over and Neville sat up on the couch to make room for the boy.

"Tommy as you've probably figured out by now, we're not from this time or maybe you haven't figured it out but I'm telling you now. We're from the distant future. We were like magic cops in our time and we came back in time by accident. Now we're stuck here. I'm happy to answer any questions you have for me and I'm going to need you to swear a magical oath to never tell anyone where we're from but right now I want you to see something. This is called a television. This thing we're watching is called a movie. It's a story told in moving pictures. This movie is Gladiator. It's one of the best and most manly movies ever made. This man lost everything and he was made a slave. He was forced to fight in the arena. Nev pop back to the beginning of the scene." Harry said. Neville hit the rewind button and hit play. The three men sat there and watched as Maximus killed six men in a half a minute. "You see the way he moves? Light on his feet and fast. Man this is a good scene. Here's the best part.

"ARE You Not ENTERTAINED?!" Harry and Neville called out together along with the movies.

"Man that's a good fucking scene." Harry said turning to Tommy who was lost to the movie with wide eyes.

"Well we found his weakness. TV." Neville said.

"That's every kid's weakness. On the up side we have hard drives full of movies and TV shows for him to watch." Harry said.

"There are more of these?" Tommy asked finally catching up to the conversation.

"Lots more. I have a 2 terabyte hard drive full of stuff. We all do." Harry said.

"Harry you can't let him watch that." Hermione said from the doorway.

"Why not? It's man shit." Harry said fist bumping Neville.

"It's violent and bloody. Don't you have some cartoons?" She asked.

"Sure but Gladiator is an important part of a growing boy's education. How else will he learn the importance of strength and honor.?" Harry said with a smirk.

"Fine, you two can keep watching that, Harry you need to cook. I cooked for two nights and everyone complained." She said.

"Fine, Tommy pay close attention to Commodus the emperor. If you ever act like that I'll be forced to slap the taste out of your mouth. It's against man code. No man should act like that." Harry said patting the boy on the shoulder as he stood up and walked out of the room with Hermione.

"We need him to swear the oath before we let him out of the house again. We can't afford a slip up." Harry said.

"I'll work with him on the wording. By the way, your horse is done." She said.

"Good. We all need one. Horses are only real form of transportation at this time. I also picked up some dry goods, eggs and milk. Did you know they covered eggs in lard to keep them fresh? The man that runs the general store said they'll last a whole year like that." Harry said sharing his aha moment with Hermione. Of course she had to spoil it.

"I knew that. People have been doing that for a long time. I learned about it in grade school." She said.

"Of course you did. Rich kid." Harry said walking into the kitchen and expanding the bag of groceries.

"I was not a rich kid. I was an only child with parents the worked all the time so I went to a good private school that kept me there all day until they could pick me up at six." She said in a prim tone.

"What ever rich kid. With your horseback riding lessons, and your fencing lessons, and your skiing and golfing lessons." Harry said putting away the stuff he didn't need to make dinner.

"You're still sore I out shot you on the links?" She asked with a smirk.

"You didn't beat my you hustled me. Acted like you didn't know which side of the cub to use on the first nine holes and then goaded me into betting you. Then you out shot me by ten strokes!" Harry said still really pissed about that.

"Well I'll make you a deal, when we have time to relax we'll get some clubs and I'll show you my real game." Hermione said.

"First we'd have to find a course that lets women play. Ha! 1885 sister. You're ass is a second class citizen." Harry said laughing.

"Shit! I've spent all my time in this box. All joking aside, how bad is it out there?" She asked looking fearful.

"For you, the wife of a rich man, you're fine. It's Abby in there I'm worried about. Men treat women like meat in the town and in the big cities it's only slightly less bad. There is no way she finds a husband that treats her like an equal in this time period." Harry said prepping the chicken for the oven.

"Well, then you're just going to have to marry her then." Hermione said.

"You've been pushing that since we first arrived. I'm not blind you know? I can see the girl's sweet on me. But that's just it. She's a bit young don't you think?" Harry asked.

"Not really. I spent the last few days with her and she's a great girl. Very calm and relaxed. She personable, cute, fun, and the only woman the takes a shower everyday and shaves her armpits and legs in 1885." Hermione said.

"Oh God! I didn't even think about that. Oh God." Harry said trying to block out the image in his head.

"See I just made her your best option. Never play a player or hustle a hustler." Hermione said walking out of the room laughing.

"I'm spitting in your mashed potatoes!" Harry called after her.

"Good then they'll have some actual flavor!" She shot back.

"HEY! Low BLow!" Harry said looking at the basket of potatoes on the counter. "My mashed potatoes are good." Harry said.

That night they had dinner at the diner table with Tommy sitting next to Harry. The boy put down two baked chicken breasts, a big helping of stuffing, and two big spoons of mashed potatoes. By the end of the meal he was food drunk but grinning like a fool.

"How were the potatoes?" Harry asked shooting a dirty look at Hermione.

"Great. It was the second best meal I've ever had. That fancy place we went to yesterday was the best." Tommy said rubbing his belly.

"Porters? Yes you all have to try it. They have the best cuts of meat. Speaking of which, how hard is it to make a bigger cold storage box Mia?" Harry asked.

"Not too hard at all, why?" She asked.

"Because if we want fresh meat we have to buy the cow and butcher it ourselves. The same with birds, and pigs I'm guessing. Or we're eating at restaurants from now on. The good news is one cow will keep us in meat for a good long time and with a big cold storage box we can keep it forever. Also us men can go hunting for duck, geese, and deer. I think there's even wild buffalo roaming around." Harry said.

"I can make a few trunks into cold boxes and we can wrap the meat in butcher paper. Do you know how to butcher a cow?" Hermione asked.

"It can't be too hard. There's got to be a YouTube video… oh shit. You know that's what's going to suck right? YouTube had everything." Harry said.

"Maybe you can get lessons from a butcher. Or you can have the cow butchered." Hermione said.

"And I know tribal hide tanning spells that will turn the cowhide into the softest leather you've ever felt." Abby said.

"Does that spell work on other hides besides cow?" Harry asked.

"Sure in class I cast it on a wolf hide with the fur still on and it worked great, I still have the hooded scarf I made from it." She said.

"I wonder if we can hunt down a dragon and tan the hide with that spell. We can make vests for the agents." Harry said out loud.

"Agent's Harry?" Hermione asked.

"What?" Harry asked lost in thought.

"You said agents. What agent?" Hermione asked.

"It's an idea I've been kicking around in my head. You know the Pinkerton detective agency? Well I was thinking, how hard would it be to make something like that. We're hiring Salem grads with good charms skills. What if we picked out a few kids that would have gotten Black Letters and hire them to do Unspeakable jobs. A few bookworm types to help you two and a few Operative types to do some jobs. Like track down bounties, and find stolen property. Things the Pinkerton agents are doing but better. Faster. You get the point. In 2016 the Pinkerton detective agency was still around as an insurance investigation agency and security company. But if we can do what they do better than they do it? We'll have a powerful agency with ties to the government. We'll be able to shape the course of history easier. We know how to train Operatives but in case the DoM becomes a thing we'll call them agents. I was thinking something like Steel Security and Investigation. SSI for short. Thoughts? Questions? Compliments on my great idea?" Harry said.

"I think it's a good idea but who's going to run it?" Hermione asked.

"Funny you should mention that." Harry said.

"NO! I'm a researcher! Not a manager. It's bad enough I was going to have to oversee the Shipping company because you two have zero organization skills but I'm not running this too. And I thought you were going to open a clothing factory?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah but Percy the ghost is so fired up about that I can have him run that operation for free with the help of a few witches and wizards. Like Binns. Labor is cheap at this point in time. We can hire a factory of a hundred seamstresses for $250 or $300 a day and that's above market price. The goods they make we can sell for ten times that amount. Especially if we use the shipping company to get fabric at dirt a cheap price. That business can run itself and the shipping company is self sustaining after we hire good people. If we pay a handful of witches and wizards $5-$7 a day to take shipments into the warehouse, shrink them, and slap a portkey to the load. The addition of a free room will make sure we have loyal workers that won't steal or fuck up the shipments. We just have to look in on each wearhouse every week. I have Smith the gunsmith working on a custom Lemat revolver that hold 9 rounds of .38 long colt and a 20 gauge shotgun shell. A shoulder rig with a colt lighting will give them 15 rounds of .38 and a shotgun shell at the ready. We get them over and under vests, bags, gargoyle horses, brooms, Unspeakable robes, phones, and a sack full of portkeys. We train them and then we send them on missions. We'll start by sending them out two and three at a time with me and Neville and then in groups by themselves and then by themselves. We pay them very well and we give them a bonus for things like recoveries of stolen goods like insurance investigators. When the tools of the trade advance with the time so will we. when magazine fed guns come out will switch to those., when cars come out we'll drop the horses. Rinse and repeat until we're bigger than Blackwater and Pinkerton combined." Harry said.

"It's all good and on paper it looks easy but running a company like that is going to take up all of my time and I still want to do my job. There are magics out there that have been untouched for hundreds of years. You say we'll switch to semi-autos but who's going to charm the magazines? Who's going to enchant the cars to drive fast enough to get somewhere? A sack full of portkeys that I'm going to have to make. You Operatives think those re-supply boxes just grow on trees. It takes three of us making that stuff for every one of you guys out in the field. We need manpower and a lot of it." Hermione said.

"So we hire them. You said it yourself, Salem graduates a hundred students a year with no jobs in the market for their skills. They're wasting away on farms and in family stores or factories for shit money. This is not going to be an overnight thing. This is going to take years to get going. The shipping company comes first. Then the clothing factory. From those two business ventures we'll collect a pool of good people to hand pick our Unspeakables. You say it takes three researchers for every operative then we'll hire five support staff members for every agent. If that's still not enough we'll hire more. Hermione we're going to be rich, and we're going to be ahead of the tech curve for a hundred years. We have time. We're also all going on the elixir of life. I'm going to Egypt in the next year and getting the stone. Why should we sacrifice our future to live out the past. We can shepherd history down a better path. Or we can sit back and make truck loads of money and let the world get back to where it was when we came back. It's up to you. We're grunts Mia. killers. You're the brains. You always have been. This is an idea I have. Like Neville's shipping company he threw out the idea. You refined it. I went out and bought warehouses. Abby's going to make an introduction at the school. We'll work together to get it off the ground." Harry said.

"Okay." Hermione said.

"You know I can take over some of these responsibilities too? I'm better at organization then research and lab work. I was supposed to be a field researcher. I can think on my feet and I'm good at multi tasking. I can essentially be your middle man for a lot of your deals and help Hermione stay on top of things." Abby said.

"Good thinking. You run the company." Harry said.

"I can't, it's 1885 and I lack a penis. You and Neville have to be the face of the company but we can run the day to day operation to free up our two Operatives to do field work. What we need is a central office in a good location. We don't need it now but when we get bigger we'll need an office in New york or Chicago. If we wait four years before we build we'll be in the sky scrape age and we can have the goblins build us a nice 30 story building in battery park overlooking the warehouse." Abby said.

"Can't we just buy the Chrysler building when it's built?" Harry asked.

"We can if you want to wait until 1930." Abby said.

"Right, it is nice though." Harry said.

"What's the Chrysler building?" Tommy asked.

"Shit I almost forgot you were here. Sorry kid. You're too quiet. The Chrysler building is a huge building that's going to be built in New York in 45 years. It's one of the nicest buildings ever built." Harry said.

"Gee that sound swell. Tommy said.

"Tommy, try this word. Cool. it's your friend. Use it for most thing that are good. Your gun is cool. You're new room is cool. Get it? Good." Harry said.

"So this building sounds cool?" Tommy said.

"Perfect. Now I'm going to need to sit somewhere quiet with a bit of space so I can get to work on the gold, silver, and copper ore." Harry said standing up from the table.

"You can set up in my tent if you would like?" Abby asked.

"That might be a good idea. We also need more tents if we're staying in the cube forever. We can set up a tent in each room and get more space in this place." Harry said taking a big stack of boxes.

"Can I join you to learn the spell? Or do you need to be alone?" Neville asked grabbing a big stack of boxes.

"No I can teach it to you." Harry said as Tommy grabbed the rest of the boxes.

"I'm just dropping these off then I have some very important TV to watch." Tommy said.

"Really? Anything in particular?" Harry asked.

"Uncle Neville said I have to watch a movie called the princess bride. Is it good?" Tommy asked.

"Very good. It's also set in the past so you won't get confused by anything. It's the perfect movie. After that you have to watch Robin Hood Prince of Thieves for Alan Rickman and then see Men in Tights after that to get the jokes." Harry said following Abby to the gold bedroom.

"I think I'll join you kid. I love the Princess Bride. It's my favorite movie." Abby said opening the door and opening the flap of her tent. "I've left it up after I unpacked my thing into the room because we've been running back and forth with books for the last three days." She said waving books back onto shelves with her wand.

"I need to shrink your couch and your coffee table." Harry said stacking the boxes on the kitchen table.

"Go ahead." She said helping Tommy with his boxes.

They cleared off space and Harry expanded three boxes of gold ore. He dumped the ore out of the boxes into a big pile on the floor and shrank the boxes. He pulled out his wand and rolled his neck.

"I hope this works. I've only use this spell set a few times and never for it's intended purpose." Harry said closing his eyes.

Harry muttered something unrecognizable and waving his wand at the pile of rocks. The pile lifted in the air and it started to spin as it did the ore liquefied and turned into one blob suspended in the air. Harry muttered one more time and waved at the ground. The blob split and formed five piles. Two gold bars and a smaller gold bar, a small silver bar, a small copper bar, a small iron bar, and a stack of three sandstone blocks. When he opened his eyes he smiled.

"Now let's see if you can do the same thing." Harry said dumping three more trunks in a pile on the floor.

"Wow, cool trick!" Tommy said.

"I agree." Neville said.

"It's draining we're going to have to split the load between us but I think we can do it. We need the room guys." Harry said to Abby and Tommy.

"We'll be in the living room." Abby said leading Tommy out of the room.

"Okay, you're going to want to practice the words for the spell because they're in gobbledygook." Harry said.

It took over an hour and a half to get through the thirty trunks of ore, and then to form 400 ounce bars to store. But in the end they had 32 gold bars, 51 silver bars, 17 copper bars, and 9 iron bars. They also ended up with 112 sand stone bricks. They stacked the metal bars in separate trunks and shrank them down.

"What should we do with the stone?" Neville asked.

"We'll box it up and dump it by the pit." Harry said.

"32 gold bars Harry. How much is that?" Neville asked.

"$25 and ounce, 400 ounces to a bar, 32 bars. $320,000. Not bad for a couple of day digging in the desert." Harry said laughing.

"I wonder what the price of silver is." Neville said.

"I'm guessing somewhere south of half of what gold is. Still 51 bars is a lot. We should think about saving some of this for the future when it's worth more. We need to get back out there tomorrow. How deep is the mine?" Harry asked.

"The map said fifty feet but they dug down and followed the gold vein. The good news is there are pits like this all over this state." Neville said as they walked to the living room where Abby and Tommy were watching the princess bride on the couch. Harry sat in the recliner and the next thing he knew he was being woken up by Abby.

"Harry, you fell asleep. Why don't you head to bed. It's after ten and you got up early." She said.

"Yeah. Did Neville say what time we're heading out to the mine?" Harry asked standing up.

"No, but he usually heads out after breakfast at eight." She said.

"Okay, thanks Abs." Harry said heading out of the room to his bedroom. Harry fell onto his bed without turning on the light or pulling out the covers. He just kicked off his jeans and boots. He pulled the watch out of his pocket and smiled. The Tommy hand of the watch was pointed to home. He set the watch on his nightstand next to his gun and passed out.

Over the weekend the boys spent their days at the pit pulling ore out of the mine, and shooting things and the girls spent the weekend making a half dozen horses and three dogs.

Saturday They did a heavy day of mining in the morning and they headed home for lunch. Harry and Tommy and his dog named Max headed into town to see Smith and pick up Tommy's gun. When they approached the shop Harry knew something was wrong. There was a guy out front of the shop standing with his back to the shop door. He had a shifty look in his eyes. Harry saw this and ducked back around the corner pulling Tommy and Max with him.

"I need you to take this button, go back to the cube and get Neville, something's not right." Harry said tossing a white button on the ground and handing the kid a black button and a green button.

"What's wrong?" Tommy asked.

"It might be something it might be nothing. That's why I need you to get your uncle. If backups available you take backup. Now go get Neville for me." Harry said.

"Okay." Tommy said seeing the look in Harry's eyes. He held the green button in his right hand and Max's leather collar in his left and said go. He vanished and thirty seconds later Neville was standing there in his over vest and holding his two guns.

"What's up?" He asked.

"I think something is going down at Smith's shop. There's a lookout posted at the door and and the shutters are closed." Harry said.

"You think someone's holding the place up?" Neville said.

"I think so, he said something about a shipment coming in today. I'm going to pop to the back of the shop in the shooting range. Give me a minute and then take out the man standing guard. We don't know the full story so leave him alive." Harry said.

"Got it." Neville said turning and slipping around the building across the street from Smith's shop.

Harry vanished and reappeared in the shooting range. He walked up to the back door and cast a one way charm on the door making it invisible to him so he could see inside. He saw a guy ransacking Smith's things looking for something. He also saw three men in the shop area. He pulled out his phone and called Neville.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"I got a guy tossing the bedroom in the back room and three guys in the shop. I don't see Smith." Harry said.

"You still want me to take out the guy out front?" Neville asked.

"Yeah. Give me a minute count from right now, take out the guy, and then kick in the door all hero like and I'll stun the guys inside." Harry said.

"So I'm the distraction?" Neville asked.

"Yeah. Start counting." Harry said putting his phone in his pocket. He popped into the back room behind the guy, grabbed him in a headlock with his hand over his mouth and sent a stunner right into his chest. He set him down softly and crept up to the open door to the shop. Harry saw three men cleaning out the shop inventory into big sacks and a third man talking to Smith who was sitting on a chair with a gun pointed at his head.

"... is the strong box? Where is it? Johnny told us all about it?" the man asked.

"I told you I don't have any money! I got the guns on the walls and in the cases, and a bit of coin in the lock box. That's all I got! Take it all! I got a new shipment of Winchester rifles and colts." Smith said.

Harry flexed his fingers as the bigger man smacked Smith across the face with his gun cutting a big gash in his forehead that started bleeding badly. Harry stood in a crouch and waited. He was about to pull his gun and shoot these three when and door came flying off the hinges. The three men turned to the door and Harry popped up and hit them all with stunners. He pulled his gun and ran up to Smith who was bleeding badly from the cut across his head. He cast a healing charm on him as Neville dragged his guy into the room and started binding the men with conjured rope after fixing the door.

"What the hell is going on Smith?" Harry asked.

"These guys followed the shipment of guns from my supplier Johnny Ringo in Utah. Johnny must have been running his mouth about the silver certificates. I should have never told him but I was trying to get his stock of rifles at a good price." Smith said.

"What are you talking about Smith? What silver certificates?" Harry asked.

"It's a long story, we have to get rid of these guys and I have to pack up and run. Shit I liked it here." Smith said looking around his shop.

"Why do you have to run? Tell me what's going on and I can help you. If you're on the run from the law I can help you get away. I can set you up with a shop like this in Chicago tomorrow. I was coming here to hire you anyways." Harry said.

"You would do that?" Smith asked.

"I'm not exactly on the right side of the law all the time either. I can put theses guys a few hundred miles away from town to give us a head start but you need to tell me what's going on." Harry said.

"It's a long story." Smith said.

"Then talk fast. Neville take their guns and potkey them to the first mine we came through." Harry said.

"Alive or dead Harry?" Neville asked.

"Alive. The desert will take care of these fools like our gold thieves yesterday. And if doesn't no one will be here if they do get back." Harry said.

"Right. I'll be back in a bit." Neville said tying a rope around all their bound hands and touched it to a portkey sticker.

"Now tell me what the fuck's going on Smith." Harry said.

"I used to run with a small gang of train and stagecoach robbers in Colorado. We were a bunch of foolish drunk kids holding people up for enough money to keep the party going. We never killed nobody and we never intended to. Hell half the people getting robbed were folks from out east coming out here for the experience of the wild west. They thought it was exciting to get robbed by a bunch of rough and tumble cowboys." Smith said.

"I get it you were punk kids." Harry said.

"Then we robbed a Wells Fargo stagecoach. We didn't know it was a Wells Fargo coach full of armed guards. We were in a Mexican stand off. four of us and five of them. No one wanted to die so we was talking it out all nice and cordial. We even agreed to lower our guns and share a bottle of whiskey and cigars with the guys. They tied up the stagecoach horses to a nearby rock and we did the same thing with our horses. They were nice decent type folks you know? Guys doing a job to pay the bills. Everything was going fine until Jonny Greenwood saw they were guarding a Wells Fargo strong box. As soon as he saw the box he pulled his gun and shot three of the men dead. The sudden gunfire startled us all. The two guards pulled their guns and shot back at us hitting Pat Stone. I pulled him behind the stagecoach to see if I could heal the wound but he was dead. Then the gunfire stopped. I came around the stagecoach and saw Jimmy and his brother Billy looking in the strong box surrounded by dead guys. They didn't care that my friend was dead. Pat was like a brother to me. We grew up together and went to Salem together. They didn't care that they killed five men either. All they cared about was the money. They saw I was pissed so they shot me and took my gun, and my wand but they didn't know I had my daddy's wand. They took the strong box and tied it between Pat's and my horse, shot the stagecoach horses, and left me to die in the desert. I healed the wound and made the ten mile walk back to town on foot. I found them in the saloon drinking and whoring. I went to the local sheriff and told him what happened and ended up in a cell for murder. The Sheriff and his deputies brought in the Greenwoods and the strong box. They started dividing up the cash between them and they said they planned on killing us and keeping it for themselves. Fucking law men." Smith said still pissed to this day.

"I've seen it before. The take was too good to pass up." Harry said.

"Right. When they took the Greenwoods out back to shoot them I escaped my cell using the wand, dumped the cash back into the strong box, shrank it, and ran. I took Pat's sister Mary and her son Billy with me. I set her up with a nice place in Salt Lake City Utah. The box had $100,000 in $1,000 silver certificates and $25,000 in cash and gold coins. I gave her all the cash and coins and took just enough to get to Ogden Utah. I tried to exchange the certificates but Wells Fargo has a warrant out on them. I ran out of town back to Salt Lake City where if found a guy willing to take $10,000 in certificates off my hands for half the value. I ran here and I set up my business. Now I'm going to have to run again. Say Harry, you want to buy up my stock of guns? I'll sell them to you real cheap." Smith said.

"You ain't sellen shit." Harry said pulling out the three empty shrunken trunks he had on him and expanding them. Using the pack spell he boxed up most of Smith's long guns in the three trunks as Neville walked into the shop.

"Nev we need more trunks. We're going to pack up Smith's shop and move him to Chicago. Smith I'm willing to help you sell off the rest of the certificates and hire you as my personal gunsmith. I'll buy a building in Chicago to set up your shop and you can keep selling guns and work for me. How's $2,000 a year sound to you plus free rent?" Harry asked.

"Sounds like a fucking dream. Sign me up." He said as Neville expanded a few trunks from his pocket and helped pack the rest of the long guns and most of the revolvers before he popped back to the cube for more boxes. In ten minutes Smith's shop and personal things were in eleven trunks. He pulled up a floorboard and took out two shrunken strong boxes. They walked back to the Cube and let Smith in. To say he was shocked would be an understatement. Tommy ran up to Harry and hugged him when he walked in. Neither one of them said anything Harry just patted the boy on the back.

A portkey trip to Chicago and a conversation with Blood Letter later and Harry was the 'proud' owner of a huge run down four story apartment building that took up most of the block and had two storefront spaces on the first floor that was just down the street from his warehouse. The good news was the building only cost 105 galleons and for another 45 gold coins the goblins could fix it up for him. That was $3,750 and for that price he owned almost another whole block of prime real estate. He also added another 16 one bedroom apartments, 8 two bedroom units, and 5 three bedroom units to his list of free housing for his future employees. To top off the good news the goblins were almost done in the warehouse and they could start fixing the apartment building next week. He talked to the goblins about the dirty silver certificates and they agreed to buy up the other $90,000 Smith had for $75,000 which was about $0.83 on the dollar. Smith was now legally Smithers Brown. Harry set Smith up in a hotel room at the Palmer House for the weekend until he could move into a warehouse apartment while his building was being rebuilt. Harry made him swear secrecy and loyalty oaths.

Harry came back to the Cube just before two and the boys want back to the mine. Tommy was about to start his 'patrol' for snakes and lizards when Harry stopped him. He pulled out a shrunken wood box and expanded it. He opened the box for Tommy and sitting inside the box was his Colt Lighting.

"You're weapon. A man can't do his job without his tools can he?" Harry said with a smile.

Tommy pulled the lighting out of his holster and handed it to Harry. He took the gun out of the box and looked it over. He opened the loading gate half cocked the hammer and checked to make sure it was loaded. When he saw that it was he set the hammer down gently on a live round and put it in his holster. He then leaped forwards and hugged Harry hard again. Two hugs in one day had changed something in the relationship over night.

"Thank you." Tommy said, and Harry noticed a lack of sir at the end of the sentence that made him happy.

"I had to get you the best. Now go do your job, shoot anything that moves aside from your uncle and me." Harry said with a smile.

"Yes sir!" Tommy said tipping his hat.

"Good boy. Now go have some fun. Maybe we can stuff a snake after you shoot it and put it in your aunt Mia's bed." Harry said with a wink.

"Good idea!" Tommy said looking around.

Harry and Neville went back to blowing a great big hole in the earth. By Sunday afternoon they were blowing up rock and getting no more ore. They tried one more time and again they got nothing. In the end they pulled 84 gold bars, 257 silver bars, 31 copper bars, and 25 iron bars. It took six days and five blocks of C4. The gold alone was worth $840,000. When Harry stopped off at the bank on Monday to exchange twenty more gold bars he found out the price of pure silver was 4 sickles an ounce, or $10. That meant the six trunks of silver bars they had were worth $1,028,000.

Monday morning dawned cold and cloudy in Nevada as mid October turned into late October. After breakfast Harry told Tommy to change into one of his nicer suits and get his long coat. When he was dressed Harry handed him a black leather shoulder rig and showed him how to put it on. When he had the rig in place Harry stuck his Colt Lightning in the holster and the leather formed around the gun. It then vanished.

"It's gone!" Tommy said.

"No it's not reach your hand under your arm and grab your gun." Harry said. Tommy reached under his arm and smiled as he pulled his shiny gun out of nowhere.

"Cool." Tommy said putting the gun back.

"It's an undercover rig. We all have one. I also have a colt cloverleaf in my coat pocket. I want you to do the same for your little .22" Harry said.

"I have it in my pants pocket." Tommy said pulling out the little gun.

"Well put it in your coat pocket. Your pants pocket is tight and your gun will get hung up on something. Your coat pocket is bigger and the gun is easier to pull out. Now have you ever ridden a horse?" Harry asked.

"No." Tommy said.

"Good it means I don't have to un train you to ride this." He said handing the kid a small shrunken black marble horse the size of a half dollar coin. "This rides like a broom, something I'm going to teach you to ride later. Come on, let's try it out before we head off for the day. Also you're going to have to leave Max here for the day." Harry said leading him out of the cube.

"Oh, okay." Tommy said turning to the big black dog that was always close by. "You have to stay here boy, watch my aunts." He said patting him on the head. Max licked his face nodded and walked into the dining room.

Harry expanded the small horse to it's real size which was about eight inches. He set it on the ground and tapped it with his glowing finger. It grew to a big 17 hand tall muscular black stallion with a long black mane and tail. There was a comfortable looking black leather saddle with a rifle sleeve. Harry was going to help Tommy up but the horse bent down a bit for Tommy to get his foot in the stirrup. When he pulled himself on and he was sitting secure in the saddle the horse stood up to it's full height.

"Now take the reigns and think about moving." Harry said. Tommy took the reigns and nodded his head forward. The horse started walking at a nice slow walk. "Now hold on and think about going faster." Harry said expanding his horse and hopping on. He trotted up to Tommy who had a big grin on his face.

"This is so cool!" Tommy said.

"This is nothing. Mia said these things will do 50 miles an hour flat out. Let's see." Harry said tucking low to the horse as it blasted forward rocketing into the desert. Harry slowed down when Tommy caught up.

"So great! It feeling like flying." Tommy said.

"Flying is flying. We'll do that later. For now we have a bunch of things to do. So let's get off, and portkey to Chicago." Harry said.

"What are we doing today?" Tommy said getting off the horse and petting it's neck.

"In Chicago we have to change in some more gold bars, check out the warehouse and help Smith move in, we also have to set up the guard dogs like Max in the warehouses. Then we'll ride around the city looking for Lemat revolvers using a point me spell which I hope will work for this. In New York we have to check on the warehouse, set up the guard dog and look for more Lemat revolvers. The same thing in Savannah Georgia. We have to do all of that before lunch. That's why we're taking the horses, and not the dog." Harry said.

"So a busy day?" Tommy said.

"Busy day indeed." Harry said shrinking the horses and holding out a portkey.

While Harry and Tommy were having their busy morning Neville was locating the next mine. It took him an hour of checking maps, using rock formations, and guessing but he located a gold and silver mine in the side of a big rock formation sticking out of the ground.

He double checked the map to make sure this was the right location before he hit the rock formation with a Bombarda blasting the twenty foot rock into small chunks. He tried summoning ore and got a huge pile of rocks full of gold and silver veins. He collected all the ore he could, dropped a few portkey buttons, and portkeyed back to the cube 75 miles east. He loaded up on more trunks and C4 and headed back. He spent the next three hours blowing a big hole in the ground and collecting ore. When he was sure it was a deep mine and worth the money to register the claim he portkeyed back to the cube and headed into town to fill out paperwork.

When Harry and Tommy got back at noon Neville was just walking into the cube with the claim papers. Harry and Tommy changed into jeans, boots, and work shirts. The boys loaded up on boxes and popped to the new mine. They went about the business of blowing a big ass hole in the earth and Tommy rode around the area on his horse with his dog shooting everything that moved. By the time they set up wards for the night they had three dozen trunks full of ore. This mine was deeper and richer than the last one. They were getting so much ore every day they had to cast the smelting charms every night. By Wednesday night they had more bars from this mine then the last one and according to the map it went down a hundred feet it took them two weeks to hit bottom. By the halfway point they got smart and found a company that would sell them dynamite. It took 12 blocks of C4 and just under 500 stick of dynamite. They pulled 413 gold bars, 729 silver bars, 101 copper bars, and 200 iron bars. That came to $4,130,000 in gold, $2,916,000 in silver, and when you added it all up with the gold and silver they got from the last mine and the gold they brought back with them it came to $9,104,000. Harry kept a balance of a million dollars in his account at Gringotts and they would sit on the rest of the bars until they needed more cash or the price jumped.

While the boys were busy mining the girls were busy becoming friends of the headmistress of the Salem academy. Through donations to the school and a one thousand galleon scholarship fund opened under the name Blackwell and Steel they got access to teachers. Through lunches and dinners on their dime they got lists of names. They then used their contacts in Gringotts and for a small fee they gathered information on each of their potential candidates. With a trip to an owlery they had 85 letters with portkeys headed out to people by the end of the first week. They set up an office space in the Chicago warehouse and on the first Monday of November they sat in the warehouse at a table and waited for the first portkey to land their first applicant.

Her name was Margaret White. Graduated top of her class in 1880. Strong in Charms and transfiguration, but she excelled at organisation. All of her teachers praised her for the same thing, she was the best prefect and head girl in the history of the school. That was five years ago. Now according to the goblins she was working in a small store in Indiana. She ran the store, kept the books, handled the orders, and took care of the place for $3 a day and she had to pay rent to stay in the small apartment above the place. On top of that she sent every penny she could to her three sisters that lived at home on a failing corn farm in Indiana with their ailing mother. The girls wanted to hire her to run the warehouse and keep track of things that came and went. But really they were hoping to put her charge of the day to day running of the company at some point. When the portkey landed her in front of them they knew they had her. She was dressed in her best clothes and they were essentially rags. A threadbare blue dress, a shawl that had seen better days and beat up but polished mary jane shoes and a black leather hand bag. Her black hair was pulled back off her face, there was just a hint of lip color and blush but it was hard to tell because her face grew red when she saw she was meeting two well dressed ladies that looked very well off.

"Have a seat Margaret, we have to admit we've been looking forward to this interview for a few days. Everyone we talked to has spoken very highly of you. Your test scores are all very high, and you are the first person we're interviewing." Hermione said shaking her hand as she sat in the chair in front of the table.

"If you don't mind me asking what is the job you're offering me? The letter said it was dealing with magic and it paid between $5-$10 a day depending on the position in the company plus free room with heat and plumbing?" She asked pulling the letter out of her beat up hand bag.

"Yes. Starting position is $5 a day and free room. The positions available are all of them at this point but we're looking for a few spot to be filled now. One of those positions is head of the Chicago branch of our shipping company. You would be in charge of a staff of five workers. You would be in charge of keeping track of shipments coming and going as well as dealing with clients. For that position we are paying $10 a day with a possible raise of a dollar a year if things run smoothly up to $15 a day. We would also cover your moving costs as well as pay you a cash bonus for signing of $100 right now if you agree to work for us." Hermione said as Abby set the contract in front of her along with two $50 gold coins.

"I want the job but could you tell me more about the company and what I'd be doing?" She asked looking at the gold coins. Those two coins represented more than a month's pay.

"We can tell you everything about the company and what your job will be once you sign the contract and sware a magical oath to not give up our trade secrets. I can tell you that nothing we're doing here is illegal. We found a way to revolutionize the way people move goods from one place to another using magic and we're going to make a lot of money providing a secure shipment of goods at very fast speeds. I can tell you this is not going to be an easy job. You will work long hours and be responsible for you workers and the shipments coming and going from this place. But for your hard work we will reward you in both money as well as time off, free medical care, and although my husband and brother own the company we run it. You will be paid more than the men we hire to work for you and you will report to us." Hermione said.

"Plus there is a chance for friendship. When you work for us we're family and you will be treated like it." Abby added with a smile.

"Well then I'm in." Margaret said taking the pen and signing the contract. She pulled out her wand from her handbag and Abby passed her a piece of paper with the oath. She said the words and the light flashed and Hermione and Abby high fived.

"You have no idea how nervous we were. You are absolutely one of our most important hires." Hermione said shaking her hand and passing her the gold coins.

"So what am I doing?" Margaret asked.

"The key to this company is something called the paired portkey. Two objects linked together. One is the target and other is the bullet. With a paired portkey no matter how far the bullet is from the target it can travel to the target in a matter of seconds. What you'll be doing is, shipments will come in. The workers will collect the shipments and move them into the warehouse. They will then shrink the shipment and put it inside of a box and hand it off to you. You then attach the right portkey to the box and send it on it's way to its target destination. Say a shipment of cotton comes in on a wagon. The guys will unload it like it's being stored here. When the customer is gone they will shrink the cotton and put it in a box and hand it off to you. You then put a portkey on it to ship it to England. Your main job will be meeting with potential clients and getting information on when a shipment is coming into the warehouse and where it's going. That way when that shipment of cotton is sitting on your desk you know where it goes. If you run into a problem we will give you a way to contact us and we will help you fix anything that comes up." Hermione said.

"Sounds easy enough." She said.

"Good, we have a bunch of time before our next meeting because we thought we would have to try hard to convince you to join the company. Like I said, you're an important part of getting this place up and running. With this free time would you like to see your apartment?" Hermione asked.

"It's in the building?" Margaret asked.

"Yes it's on the second floor." Hermione said as the women went up the staircase in the back of the warehouse.

The stairway lead to a long hallway that ran from the back to the front of the warehouse cutting the second floor in half left and right. There were six doors, three on each side. They walked to the front left door and opened it. The apartments were 15 foot wide and 50 foot deep with white walls, dark wood trim, and dark wood floors. The door opened up into a 15x25 kitchen/living room. On the left side of the room two walls were covered in cabinets topped with butcher block counters. The only missing counter top space was for a magical stove, sink, and magical cold storage box. A small kitchen table took up the middle of the floor. The right side of the room had bookcases, a fireplace, a blue rug, and a blue couch. There was a door at the back of the room leading to the 15x10 bathroom with a door on the other side of that room. The bathroom space was mostly taken up by a big claw footed bathtub with a shower curtain ring and shower head. A sink and a toilet. Through the door was a 15x15 foot bedroom with a queen sized bed, a nightstand, a stand up mirror, and a wardrobe.

"What do you think?" Hermione asked.

"I think it's crazy I'm getting paid $10 a day and I get to live here for free." She said.

"Wait until you see how busy this place is going to get and then you'll be complaining we pay you a slaves wage for the work you do." Hermione said laughing.

That day, with Margaret's help they hired five worker for the warehouse. As well as a healer. This was another important part of their future endeavors. His name was Robert Kane. He was a graduate of Salem in 1878 and a graduate of Harvard medical school in 1882. Over the next ten years the man would slowly revolutionize the way magical medical care was handled and administered. He would invent a few dozen potions and variations on potions they still used in 2016. He was the father of magical medicine or rather he would be once he got famous enough for people to start listening to him. He was nobody until he invented the cure for dragon pox in 1894. The problem was the pox killed hundreds of children starting from 1889. This time he would be brought in fully into the plan, given books about his work and made into the company doctor. They set him up in the other storefront next to Smith's gun store. Doc Kane would run a clinic out of the shop and get to work getting his future research out to the public two decades earlier.

The next day they did the same thing in New York. Hiring David Hamilton to run the shipping operation there. Like Margaret he was a head boy good at keeping track of the kids in his charge. Also like Margaret he was working a job he hated for almost no pay and the cost of living was catching up with him fast. It was a story all of the people that got letters had in common. The girls, having done the research for the hiring process were shocked at what an expensive Salem institute diploma got you. They thought it was bad in their day but in this time not only were there no jobs for magicals but taking seven years out of your life from 11-17 took seven years off your work experience. It was the equivalent of being a 35 year old unpaid intern. David was working in a coal mine in Pennsylvania. He made $2.50 a day. He shared a house with four other men and ate bread and salted meats for two meals a day and he still was paying off the loan he took from Salem to attend school. He was underweight, pale, and sickly looking. Hermione practically threw money at the man. They hired eleven more workers for the New York operation.

The next day they were in Savannah setting up that place. For the southern operation they hired a man named Brick Baker. Brick was his real name and the man looked like a brick. He was six and a half foot tall and four foot wide almost none of it was fat. Again he was a head boy, but unlike the other two managers they hired, Brick was not very bright. He was head boy for one reason and only that reason. He was fiercely protective of people under his care. He was the eldest of four sisters and the only man in the family. His father was an Auror and he died on the job meaning his family was compensated, but he was still the primary breadwinner and to make that bread Brick joined a crew of dock workers working 12 hours a day loading and unloading ship for $3 a day. The man was so sun burnt it added to his brick like appearance. When he heard the position came with a free room he practically ripped the contract out of Abby's hand.

"I've been living in a house full of women my whole life and I can't take it anymore. No offence to you two but you have no idea what it's like to share a two bedroom house with four southern women. They're mean, judgmental, spinsters that complain about everything. I love them with everything I have but some days I swear I think about killing them all. I need to get out. This job pays more than $3 a day right?" he asked looking tired and brow beaten.

"$10 a day with a $1 raise option every year and a $100 signing bonus." Hermione said.

"Thank you god. I will be the most loyal worker you've ever seen. Now what's the job?" Brick asked making both women laugh.

That day they rounded off their US workforce with five more workers. The day after that they had meetings with potential hires. For other overseas operations they would be setting up later. For now they moved most of them into the Chicago apartment building for free and they paid them $3 a day to sit and wait for their chance to get a position in the company. They intended on hiring 35-50 of the 85 people they sent letters to. They had a short list of management potentials that they wanted to lock down and they had short lists of people that had history with those managers so they put them together in teams. But when Hermione saw the sorry state most of these witches and wizards were in she hired them all. This caused a new problem, they ran out of space to put people. So they threw money at the problem. They offered an extra $1 a day to anyone willing to room together. They spent the rest of the week and weekend helping people move into apartments. By Sunday everyone in the cube looked ready to fall over except Tommy who looked excited by the prospect of seeing another movie. This time it was the first of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies. Harry and Abby got all of their media drives together and made a list of all of their combined movies. They then listed them in order of what time the movies take place. They started with movies that took place before 1800 and they allowed Tommy one movie a night. They all sat down to watch The curse of the black pearl and the adults were snoring by the time Will Turner broke Jack Sparrow out of jail. Harry was the last one to drop off, he gave Tommy his Bluetooth headphone and shut the tv volume off. Tommy watched the whole movie trying hard to contain his excited outbursts. By the end Tommy woke Harry up and they woke Neville up. They carried the sleeping women to their bedrooms before heading off to bed. Tomorrow was the opening day of B&S Shipping.


	5. Chapter 5

On Monday the second week in November 1885 Blackwell and Steel Shipping Inc. Officially opened and the girls took out full page ads in every major newspaper they could in the week leading up to this opening day advertising prices at half the competitive rate with guaranteed shipments. They were expecting a flood of orders and shipments. Both Neville and Harry had portkeys in place to open fields where they could take off fast and head to new locations. The goblins were holding warehouse spaces for them in major shipping cities around the world. They pulled in all of their workforce and had them all portkey to the New York warehouse at 8 am so Harry could give them a big speech about how proud he was to have all of them on his team and give them a good breakfast cooked by restaurant chefs on site. Nine o'clock rolled around and they opened their big front doors expecting a line of people. They got disappointment. No one. Not one order. By lunch the workers were getting antsy. Harry tried to keep their spirits up by dropping off bags of cheese burgers and fries to the three warehouse but the fear had set in. Harry had lunch in the New York warehouse. They set up a table off to the side of the room and Harry threw up a silencing charm.

"People are starting to freak out." Hermione said.

"They think we're going to see the cost of this failed endeavor and fire them all in a week. By the way how much did this day cost us?" Harry asked.

"You want real numbers?" Hermione asked looking sadly at her leather folder.

"Just ballpark it for me." Harry said.

"Well for the two meals we're out $300. As for the workers it costs about $500 a day to keep them all on like this." She said looking worried.

"So if we toss in $200 for dinner later we're looking at a $1,000 loss on our first day and if the trend continues we're looking at $7,000 for the for the first week. Well Nev, it's official, we're businessmen!" Harry said clinking his beer bottle with Neville's.

"Business men my ass! We put this whole thing together while you two played around in the dirt." Hermione said.

"Played around in the dirt!? We made this all possible." Harry said pointing at the boys with a big grin.

"You three goofed off while we did all the hard work and now you think you can take all the credit?" Hermione yelled with a smile as she tried not to laugh.

They went back and forth for a few minutes and they were laughing so hard by the end they were falling over. Tommy tugged at Harry's sleeve and Harry bent over to hear what he had to say.

"Their all looking more calm because you guys are laughing." Tommy said to which Harry winked at him and smirked. Tommy knew right there and then it had all been a part of the plan. He grinned and sat back in his seat.

After lunch Harry took to the loading dock in the back of the warehouse and raised his hands to get everyone's attention.

"Well opening day is about halfway over and we still don't have a shipment. And some would call this day a bust so far but you know what I call it? A good start! The week is young and God dammit we will ship something even if I have to got out and buy a load of cotton and ship it between our own warehouses! Because the real shame of today is not the lack of customers. It's the total waist of your talents and skills! You deserve better from us and we will deliver! I'm going out right now and I'm going to drum up business! Someone somewhere has to ship something and by God I will find that person and drag them down here myself!" Harry said with a grin as he got the workers fired up.

"We never doubted you for a second Sir!" David said.

"Yes you did and it's okay! We took a $1,000 loss so far today and not only do I not care I'm going to double your first week's pay! That's how much confidence I have in this company!" Harry pulled out a box of ten gold bars he carried with him at all times and dumped the bars out on the ground. "That's $100,000 in gold. I keep it with me at all times. It's pocket money to me. I'm willing to keep taking losses from this company for years. And even if this company goes under I will personally find you all jobs in whatever company we start next!" Harry said. His speech was interrupted by a boy dressed in a top hat and tails holding letter.

"Harry Steel?" The boy asked.

"Yes?" Harry asked hopping off the platform.

"Important letter from Gringotts sir. I'm to give this to you and bring you back to the bank." The boy said.

"Right. Hand it over." Harry said taking the note.

Valued Customer Harry Steel,

We have an urgent matter to discuss with you regarding a shipment of vital importance for another valued customer. Please come to the bank at your earliest convenience to talk about this matter.

Sincerely, Bone Breaker, Branch Manager, New York.

"It's from the bank, they want to talk to me about an important shipment!" Harry said getting a cheer from the crowd. Harry summoned the gold bars back into his box and shrank it as Tommy handed him his coat and top hat.

"Thanks kid." He said messing the kid's hair before he turned and followed the boy out to a waiting carriage. In five minutes Harry was sitting in Bone Breaker's office next to another older man in a nice suit and top hat.

"Harry I'm glad you could make it. I know this is your opening day and you're probably busy but this matter is very time sensitive." Bone Breaker said.

"Not at all. We're dead over there. Not one shipment on our first day so you have my full attention. What can I do for you?" Harry asked.

"Harry this is John Ogdon." Bone Breaker said.

"As in the fire whiskey?" Harry asked shaking the man's hand.

"Yes, or I am as long as I can keep the business up and running." the older man said looking like a man at the end of his rope.

"What can I do to help?" Harry asked.

"A lot I hope. One of the very important ingredients in my family's fire whiskey is Chinese fireball dragon venom. It's a very volatile substance and very hard to transport. It needs to be packed in small ten ounce bottles and shipped ten bottles to a crate packed in ice. If the temperature of the bottle get above 45 degrees the bottle will explode. If one bottle goes it sets off the rest of the bottles and then takes out the ship or train it's being transported on. Which is unfortunately what happened to my last two shipments. One blew up on the ship to England and one shipment went off on a train outside of Chicago. It takes three months for ten small bottles to be collected in the dragon preserve in China. It take 16 days on a boat from Hong Kong to get to San francisco. It take 7 days on a train to get the crate to New York where it get's put on a boat. It takes another 9 days to get to London. That's 32 days. As of a week ago I had to shut down the factory because of the loss of my last two shipments. One crate make 100 barrels of whiskey. We get a 1000 bottles from each barrel. A bottle sells for a silver sickle. That's 10,000 gallons per case of venom. It costs me 5,000 galleons to ship the crate of fireball venom. I lost two shipments and I had to buy a boat, a train, and pay death benefits to 56 families. I'm out 26,000 galleons. And as of right now there will not be a Ogdon's 1886 batch. Every day my factory is down I'm losing huge amounts of gold. Now Bone Breaker said you have a shipping company and he says you have ways of getting around faster than normal wizards. I don't care how you do it. I'm willing to pay you 5,000 galleons to get that shipment from Hong kong to london in less then a month. If you can get it there in less than 15 days I'll pay you 7,500 gold galleons." Ogden said.

Harry did a quick count in his head. 7,500 was $187,000. Harry started doing the other math in his head. Flight time from LA to Hong Kong was…. Wait why would you go all the way around? Why not go across china, the middle east, and europe?

"I have a few questions. Why don't you just send it the other way through china and europe?" Harry asked.

"Chinese Triad. They control the roads. I used to ship it that way in fact we had a dragon farm in the northwest of china. But then a payment was late one time and they destroyed my shipment and killed my dragons. I had to relocate but I had to stay in China because it's the only place you can get an adult male Fireball and they do not do well in captivity outside of China. I've been doing the long way around trip for the past ten years. I tried to get back in their good graces but they won't do bussiness with me any more. It cost almost the same to go all the way around the world then go through them anyways. And before you ask going around the cape of good hope is out as well. That whole area is controlled by pirates." Ogden said.

"Wow you really are up a wall with this. Okay. Is the venum reactive to magic or vibration?" Harry asked.

"How so?" Ogden asked.

"If I shrink the crate and cast spells around it will it explode. The same for bumping the crate. I just want to know if my shipping methods will work." Harry said.

"No, they use magic to extract it, and aside from temperature it's pretty stable." Ogden said.

"In that case you'll have it in your london factory in two days." Harry said looking at his watch.

"Really?" Ogden asked looking shocked.

"Yes and when I deliver I want three things from you. 5,000 gold galleons for the shipment, the standard fee. A signed contract with my company to do the run four times a year. And I want you to tell your friends. I have warehouses in three cities and I'm going to expand to other cities as soon as I get contracts like this. I'm going to open a warehouse in london and one in hong kong. I expect your powerful friends to hear about the work we do. I have workers that are in need of work." Harry said.

"If you can get that shipment to my factory in two days I will personally guarantee the venum run to your company as well as our bottle and barrel shipping orders." Ogen said holding out his hand to Harry.

"I'll hold you to that. Now if you'll excuse me I have to get back to my factory and tell them we have our first shipment." Harry said standing up.

"Harry will you be needing the london warehouse on the Themes?" Bone Breaker asked with a grin.

"Yes, have your man in london meet me at the warehouse in…" Harry paused to do math in his head. It was almost 2pm in New York. London was five hours ahead making it 7pm right now. It was like 3,500 hundred mile to London. 650 miles an hour cruising speed. Five hours and change in flight time would put him in London at about midnight. "Very early in the morning if you don't think he'll mind. I want to get eyes on it before I buy it. Let's make the appointment for six. I have the address." Harry asked.

"He'll be there. Good luck with your first shipment Harry." The goblin said.

"For this trip I'm going to need it." Harry said putting on his top hat as he walked out of the office. Harry popped back to the warehouse where there was activity. "What's going on?" Harry asked Hermione who was sitting at the table watching the workers box up shipments.

"You want to field that question David?" Hermione asked the man sitting close by on the table writing in a ledger.

"Sure! We got a shipment! Came in right after you left. It's six wagons full of shirts in crates headed to Chicago for transport to cities along the train route to San Francisco. It weighs three tons. With this one load we made $1,500. The crew was so happy they had the boxes shrank, packed in a trunk, and portkeyed to Chicago in five minutes. The Chicago crew will sit on the trunk until tomorrow when we'll drop it off at the train station. And then like a dam breaking we got more shipments. A lock company dropped off ten crates headed to denver. Mr. Blackwell left fifteen minutes ago he said he'd be back in an hour. Mrs. Blackwell made a call to the goblins and inquired about property in Denver. He's meeting with their satellite agent and looking for a place right now. We're going to dispatch a team there in the morning to handle that location. Chicago is reporting two shipments coming our way heading to London. We're going to need you to head out there now to set up a place in London so we can send out a team to cover drop offs." David said looking up from his ledger.

"Okay, whatever we're paying you, it's fucking worth it. Also I was heading out there anyways to handle some magical business. Mia what's the best way to transport Fireball venom?" Harry asked.

"Sealed thermal walled container covered in dry ice. Someone is hiring you to transport Fireball venom?" she asked.

"Ogden, as in the fire whiskey. It's one of the ingredients. He's desperate and willing to sign over shipping rights to us. He'll also tell his friends about us and we get more shipment. On top of that this is a four times a year shipment worth 5,000 galleons. That's $125,000. It's our operating cost for a year in one shipment. but it means I have to head to Hong Kong tomorrow. Now how do I get dry ice in 1885?" Harry asked.

"To make dry ice you need a canister of CO2 and a pillow case. Attach the pillow case to the canister and open the nozzle. Dry ice." Hermione said looking at her ledger of all the shipments recorded in all of the ledger books.

"Canister of CO2? How am I going to get?" Harry asked

"You know you could just conjure the dry ice right?" Hermione said looking at Harry like he was special.

"Good to know. Where's Tommy?" Harry asked looking around.

"With Abby getting ice cream." Hermione said.

"Mr. Steel we got another shipment to London. That's five. We really need a warehouse in London." David said.

"I heard you the first time, also call me Harry from now on. I'm going tonight. I have a meeting with a goblin in the morning to buy a warehouse. Now is there anything closer? Anything I can do in the next hour or so like what Nev is doing? A short hop?" Harry asked.

"We really could use a warehouse in Boston." David said.

"Mia can handle that one in the morning. She has a portkey to Salem. Talk to Venum Drinker. He can show you a list of warehouses. There is a red brick warehouse on the water with a green roof and big green doors. I can't remember the address. But it was big and expensive. Like 1,500 gold galleons or something like that. But it was big and new and clean. Move in ready. I didn't buy it because back then we were broke. Now we are not. Just like staff. We're going to need more I think." Harry said looking around.

"No, we're fine for now. In a few months though?" Hermione said watching another cart come in.

"Any other short hops?" Harry asked.

"We have a request from Chicago to pick up a ten ton shipment of ivory and other taxidermied game animals in the Ivory Coast. If you want to take it? The company is offering our full price plus $1,500. That's $7,500 and there is a chance for more shipments. That same company inquired about shipments of spices from Morocco. When it rains it pours." David said.

"No shit. Take the two jobs. I'll make stops in those two countries on the way back." Harry said as Abby and Tommy came in carrying shopping bags.

"We bought ice cream for everyone." Tommy said with a smile.

"Good thinking kid." Harry said patting the boy on the back.

"We were going to just get a scoop but I asked if it was possible to bring some for everyone. Abby said yes. We got chocolate and vanilla and mint chip. We got three big tubs of each so we can send it to the other warehouses too." Tommy said. Pulling pint sized tubs out of the bags. Abby dropped the shrinking charm and the tubs grew to three gallon metal buckets.

"Really good thinking. Don't bring something unless you bring enough for everyone right?" Harry said making a big stack of bowls and spoons.

"That's what he said, it's almost as if he's heard it before." Abby said with a smirk.

"Let's get a scoop and have a seat I want to talk to you about something." Harry said to Tommy. They loaded up bowls and headed off to a corner of the warehouse overlooking the floor. They took seats on the floor letting their feet dangle over the edge. Max alway at Tommy's side sat next to his master and waited to get his head scratched.

"What did you want to talk to me about?" Tommy asked.

"I wanted to ask you a question and you don't have to be embarrassed about it. Can you read and write?" Harry said.

"I can read, sure, I mean not every word but I can read." Tommy said.

"It's okay, I was going to suggest we get you a tutor. Someone to teach you the bigger words you don't know and maybe some beginner level spells. Just to get you up to speed you know? Would you be okay with that?" Harry asked looking down at the boy.

"Sure I mean, I'm going to have to go to school next year right?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, about that, I was thinking, maybe we don't send you to Salem. After talking to Hermione and Abby who talked to all these people she told me the curriculum of the school is shit. By getting a wand and hanging out with us you'd be better off than attending the institute. Of course there is more to school then learning. Like making friends and being a kid. Just hanging out with kids your own age is good. My point is, the choice is up to you. We can get you a tutor to work with you five days a week for half a day for the next ten months and enroll you in Salem, or Hogwarts, or any other school in the world. Or after we get you up to speed you instead apprentice under us. Your aunts, Neville and me. We will teach you the core four, Charms, Transfiguration, Dark Arts, and Potions. Then you will have a choice. Be done with learning, or go advanced. Study under your aunts in things like enchantments, runes, and curse breaking. Or shadow Nev and me learning things like tradecraft, tracking, stealth. Things like that. One side is light, the other is dark. Both have their moments and like I said the choice is yours to make. You can do all of it, most of it, none of it." Harry said.

"I think I might like to study under Aunt Mia. Don't get me wrong, I think what you and uncle Neville can do is very cool I don't think I can kill people like you can. You're not disappointed in me right?" Tommy asked looking up at Harry with worried eyes.

"No, in fact I'm happy you don't want to kill people. No one should want to kill people. I do it so other people don't have to. Killing don't affect me. It never has, I think I might be broken inside. I grew up in a war. Fought it since I was a little bit older than you. Take it from me kid, you don't want to start killing people. And don't tell my smart ass sister but the work she does is way more important than what we do. Without Research Operatives couldn't do their jobs. No cool toys, guns phones, the cube. Your aunt invented the cube. She also invented the Op phone, and the refueling tank. If there was one person I want you to be like it's Hermione. I'm just happy you took the smart path and not the one that looks cool." Harry said finishing his bowl of mint chip.

"Yeah, I figured I can still shoot stuff and carry a gun and learn to do your job without having to do it. But I want to be able to help aunt Mia more in the future." Tommy said licking the chocolate off his lips.

"You can, in fact I'm going out of town for a few days. I have to make an important run around the world. Why don't you take this time to show your aunt you can be helpful to her. Sit with her. Watch her work and make sure she eats." Harry said standing up.

"Okay. I'll spend the rest of the day with her and aunt Abby. I like spending time with Abby. she's fun." Tommy said with a smile.

"You sweet on her kid?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"No, but she sure is fun to be with." Tommy said as they walked back to the big table in the front corner of the warehouse the acted as David's desk.

"Anything important I need to know about before I head off?" Harry asked.

"Not really, there are six shipments waiting to go to London. But aside from that we're handling things as they come in." David said.

"Good keep on top of it. I'm heading out. I have a flight to London tonight and a flight to Hong Kong tomorrow morning. On the way back I'll stop by Morocco and the Ivory Cost. Hermione can you set up a meeting with a goblin in those two countries for me? If you need me for anything call me. Aside from that I'll see you in two days." Harry said as Tommy hugged him.

Harry portkeyed to teterboro field and opened Hermione's tent. He changed out of his english cut suit and put on comfortable jeans, a t-shirt and black leather converse low tops. He pulled on his bomber jacket and expanded his plane. He topped off the tanks and he was in the air headed east to London by three in the afternoon. The flight was boring for the most part. Harry listened to 90's rock and played solitaire and Angry Birds on his phone the whole way there. Harry landed on a farm outside the city and dropped a portkey in a stand of trees at the back of the property. He set up the tent, laid on the couch, set his phone for five, and forced himself to get some sleep.

Harry's phone rang at five and he got up. He put on his black english cut suit and wool over coat. He collapsed the tent and expanded his horse. He rode the ten miles into city at a dangerous speed but as he got closer to the city center he slowed down to nice walk. It took him twenty minutes to get to the warehouse but again he didn't have to deal with invisibility cloaks, brooms, and finding an alley close by to change over. As he approached the big building right on the river between London bridge and the tower of london. Harry rode to the water and looked down the river to where tower bridge would be built and smiled at the fact that he was here before the bridge. He rode around the building and saw a shorter man dressed in a Morning suit and top hat. He was holding a leather folder and checking his watch as Harry rode up and hopped off his horse.

"Steel?" The goblin in disguise asked.

"Yes, sorry for the early hour but this was the only time I could do this. Harry Steel, good, well I was going to say morning, but with the grey skies and almost no sun let's call it late evening." Harry said with grin offering his hand to the goblin.

"Late evening indeed, I'm Ragnok head of real estate." He said taking Harry's hand.

"For the London branch or the bank?" Harry asked.

"The bank, I understand you've gotten to know most of my branch managers in the states." Ragnok said as he opened the doors to the warehouse and lead Harry in.

"Yes, starting with Blood Letter in Chicago and Bone Breaker in New York. They have both become friends to me. I've shared a few meals with them and we've gotten to know each other, good chaps the both of them." Harry said looking around the large room.

"Yes, both of them speak highly of you." Ragnok said.

"I hope after the paperwork is signed I can take you to breakfast. A good steak and some runny eggs with fried bacon and hash sounds good. Sorry, I haven't had a meal today. I've been traveling all night." Harry said at Ragnok's raised eyebrow.

"It's quite alright, now that you mention it I skipped my morning meal as well." Ragnok said with a grin.

"Then let's get this done quick. I hear a good cup of tea calling me." Harry said laughing as they walked into the warehouse office.

In the end the huge space cost Harry 750 galleons, or $18,750. That included 50 galleons for construction costs. But the building was new and big. 200 foot wide and 150 foot long with two floors. They would be adding 20 apartments and a deep water dock. Harry had breakfast with Ragnok before he popped back to the farm outside of the city. Harry ditched his suit jacket, wool coat and top hat for his flight jacket and sunglasses. He expanded his plane and he was in the air by half past eight. He set his course for Hong kong and set in for a long nine hour flight.

Harry woke up and I took him a second to figure out what was going on. He must have fallen asleep. He panicked for a minute checking his map and navigation computer. It was dark outside his window and the last thing he remembered it was still light outside his window. He checked his watch which he set to London time and his watch said it was just after one. Since he was sure he didn't just sleep fourteen hours he was guessing that was one pm. His magical hud said he was somewhere over northeast China. He called Hermione.

"Hey Harry? Is everything going okay?" She asked seeing his confused look.

"Yeah, I just had a common sense question. What's the time difference between London and Hong Kong? Because my watch says it's one in London but it dark as shit outside my cockpit." Harry said.

"Um I think it's like a 6 or 7 hours ahead so it makes sense that it's dark outside Harry it's like 7 or 8 pm. Harry why are you confused about this? What's going on with you?" She asked.

"Um, I had a big meal and I may have fallen asleep for a few hours." Harry admitted with an uncomfortable grin on his face.

"Harry! Just because you're the only man flying around in a plan doesn't mean you can sleep in the plane." She said.

"I know. I would never sleep like that but this long ass flight is boring as shit." Harry said.

"Well don't do it again. Now here's Tommy he heard all that and he's worried about you." She said handing the phone to the boy.

"Hey kid, what's going on over there?" Harry asked with a smile.

"Are you okay father?" The boy asked with a worried look in his eyes. The word hit Harry hard. Harder than he expected it to. Father. He was someone's father. He shook his head and blinked a few times.

"Yeah I'm fine. You know how you feel tired after eating a big meal? Well I felt like that and then sat in my very comfortable seat in the plan and I had the soft music going and I just passed right out. But I'm up now, and headed to Hong Kong. What about you, what are your plans for the day?" Harry asked.

"Aunt Mia said I could come with her to Boston to buy a warehouse and she said she would take me to Salem to look at the school. She also said we might go to New Orleans to look at warehouses. She said I might be able to fly with uncle Neville. It sounds like fun." Tommy said with a big grin.

"That does sound fun. I hope you a have good time with your aunt and uncle. I want you to do three things for me when you go. I want you to wear your gun in your shoulder rig like I showed you and your .22 in your coat pocket. I want you to listen to your uncle Neville when he's flying. If he tells you to do something I want you to do it. Flying is no joke. I should have taken this flight more serious. And lastly when you go to Salem there's a junk shop in town run by a little old lady, I want you to ask her if she remembered who sold her the Lemat revolver. You know what it looks like so you can describe it to her. Also give her the company name and tell her if the person comes back to tell them there is 100 galleons waiting for them and a job offer. Can you do that? Can you remember it all?" Harry asked with an encouraging smile.

"I can get it Father, and Aunt Mia is writing it all down." Tommy said smirking.

"That's your bookish aunt for you. Remember keep your eyes open, you're aunt's not fast on the draw like you are. Remember what I told you. If you see someone coming at you shoot them in the leg. Worse case scenario you shot someone you have to heal and pay off. The best case you stopped someone from getting you." Harry said.

"I know father." Tommy said.

"Good boy. Have fun today kid. Now put your aunt back on the phone." Harry said.

"Bookish aunt?" Hermione asked taking the phone back.

"You are bookish and we'd be lost without you, also the boy is fast on the draw and a better shot than you. The kid's getting good fast." Harry said.

"Well I don't plan on anyone shooting anyone today. Tommy and I are going to have a nice day riding around a bit and maybe we'll do a bit of shopping. Tomorrow I was thinking we could all take a trip to London and get him a proper Ollivander wand." Hermione said looking down at Tommy.

"You think we could?" Tommy asked.

"I don't see why not. I have a half dozen portkeys set up in the city by the warehouse. I think I'm just going to set up a portkey in Hong Kong and pop back to London for the evening and come back to pick up the package in the morning. I'll hold on to it until the Ogden factory opens at nine am London time. I'll then fly out to Morocco to set up the spice deal, and then from there I'll fly to the Ivory Cost, and collect the shipment of ivory. I can meet you guys at the cauldron at four in the afternoon, that's… eleven am New York time and nine in Nevada?" Harry asked more than said.

"Yes, your math checks out. Are you going to be able to handle all that flying?" Hermione asked.

"I can if I take a good long nap after I get back to London tonight. Time zone hopping is the worst." Harry said rolling his neck.

"Well you'll be happy to hear that after this big buy up of places we are set for a while. We may have to fly out to a few places in the next month or two but we should be set. Also we made $29,500 yesterday and so far this morning we've had three shipments come into the New York warehouse." Hermione said.

"$29,500 our first day. And you didn't even count the $125,000 we're making from this Ogden run. That's $164,500. Not bad from one day's work." Harry said.

"Abby did some math and if we average about $20,000 a day for the next year we're looking at seven million in profits. Not bad for a little start up shipping company." She said.

"This was all on you dear sister. I'll see you in 29 hours." Harry said hanging up.

It took four more hours to reach the coast, not that it mattered the rocky terrain of the land blended into the choppy waters of the south China sea. Harry dropped in low and spent a few minutes looking for a place to set down but he couldn't find a stretch of land that was clear. Harry found the island to the south of Hong Kong that housed the dragon preserve. Harry could see the wards that protected the island. There was a dock and a few buildings that acted as the dragon keeper's homes.

Harry opened the cockpit canopy and cast a bubble charm over the open cockpit to keep the wind out. He made a few paired portkeys and did another low and slow pass over the island. As he got close he dropped three portkey buttons onto the island and watched as they hit the houses on the island. He took his plane up and dropped the invisibility enchantment on it. For the first time in a month he could see his Femme Fatale. He unbuckled his seat belt, stood up in his seat, stepped out onto the wing, reached inside the cockpit, and shut off the engine. Before the plane had a chance to stall out and drop Harry shrank the plane and summoned it. As he fell he calmly pulled out a white button and a second later he was standing next to a small house by a dock. He dropped a few more portkeys next to the building and pulled out the portkey to London.

In ten seconds he was standing by the warehouse in London. By his watch it was just before six. The warehouse was full of goblins under glamour charms working on the second floor. Harry slipped away down an alley and pulled out his suit jacket, top coat, and top hat. He ditched his flight jacket and cleaned and pressed his suit with a wave of his hand. He got dressed and walked off into the city of London in search of a good meal. He ended up at Criterion and the Sherlock Holmes fan boy in him was even more excited this time then when he ate at the place in the future because not only was he sitting in a room where the consulting detective ate, but he was sitting in the room When the great detective ate here. He half expected to look across the room and see two men, one with a cane the other in a deerstalker hat eating eating and smoking a pipe. A Study in Scarlet wasn't even out yet. But when the book did come out he was going to be the first one in line to get it signed by Arthur Conan Doyle himself. Thinking about things like that always gave him a little thrill. Like a kid looking at the gifts under the tree and waiting for Christmas day.

One prime rib with horseradish cream, garlic mashed potatoes, caramelized carrots, and a bottle of port later and Harry was looking for a bed. He popped back to the farm outside the city and set up the tent. He crashed on the bed this time and barely got up the next morning when his phone rang at eight. He cleaned and pressed his suit once again and portkeyed back to the dragon preserve. He landed and came around the building. It was half past three here and when Harry walked in he was greeted by an old British man.

"Can I help you?" The old man asked.

"Yes, I'm here to pick up the order of Fireball Venom for Ogden." Harry said.

"Right. You'll be the man from his new shipping company. We got his order ready. It's in the magical cold storage unit. Once you take it out you have to pack it in ice. The temperature is at zero thanks to the magical cold unit. The temperature rises one half degree centigrade every minute until you can get it into a magical cold storage unit. Ice slows that way down to about half a degree an hour. If the temperature gets above 120 degrees it goes boom. Now where is your ice? I assume you have a ship with ice or a cold storage box?" The man asked.

"I will be shrinking the crate and putting it in a small cold storage box." Harry said.

"Good. This stuff goes off like there's no tomorrow because if you're in a thousand feet of the box there is no tomorrow for you." the old British man said.

"Good to know. I have the box right here." Harry said pulling a shrunken trunk out of his pocket.

"Alright, let's get you a shipment of venom. We store it in the house at the end of the island. I'm Louis Cardiff by the way." He said.

"Harry Steel." Harry said as they walked along the street lined with small houses. They got to a gap in houses and few hundred feet away there was a small stone and mortar building about the size of a wood shed with no windows and a flat roof made of thick plate steel. The building had big metal bands like a thick cage around the outside and Harry could see with his mage sight the power rolling of the metal. There was a thick steel door that was not connected to the stone building but rather hinged on the cage. Luis pulled a key out of his pocket and opened the door. He pulled the door open for Harry and inside the small building was a big metal box. Luis opened the metal box and they were both hit with an arctic blast of ice cold air. Harry saw a heavy metal strong box inside.

"Grab it." Louis said nodding to the box. Harry took the two handles and lifted the surprisingly heave strong box out of the chiller and set it on the ground as Luis slammed the chiller lid closed. Harry opened the latch and lifted the lid on the strong box. He saw inside the box was a wood divider separating ten glass bottles holding a red liquid that looked like rolling fire. Harry shut the lid and expanded the trunk. He set the strong box inside and when Lois wasn't looking he made big slabs of dry ice around the box. He shut and locked the trunk, shrank it and put it in his pocket.

"Thank's for unlocking the door for me. My ship is docked over on this side of the island. See you in four months." Harry said walking off.

When he was sure he was out of eyesight of the old man he ducked behind a house and portkeyed back to his warehouse. He pulled out his horse and rode to Hammersmith. The short ten mile trip was taken at a gingerly pace. He got to the Ogden factory just as the workers were opening the doors. Harry hopped off his horse and walked into the factory.

"Can I help you sir?" A stuffy man in dress robes asked.

"Yes, I'm Harry Steel, I'm here to drop of a shipment of Fireball venom." Harry said.

"Yes. Where is the shipment?" The man asked looking excited.

"Right here where is the chiller?" Harry asked pulling out the small trunk.

"You shrank the box?" The man asked looking panicked.

"It was the best way to transport it. Now if you will show me to the chiller I would like to get this box of fiery death out of my hands." Harry said.

"Right this way." The man said leading him down a set of stairs to an underground cellar that was cold enough to see your breath. He show Harry to a big walk in meat style freezer. Harry expanded the trunk and opened the lid. The man opened the chiller and Harry set the strong box on the shelf.

"Man am I glad to get that in the chiller." Harry said.

"Yes we handle Fireball venom with extreme care. Now if you will follow me to my office I will give you the bank draft for the gold we owe you and we will sign the contract for the shipping rights." He said leading Harry up out of the cellar.

It took a few minutes of filling out paperwork but Harry now had a 5,000 galleon bank draft and signed copies of the shipping agreement. Harry portkeyed back to the field were the tent was still set up. He changed into his western suit and put on his flight jacket. With a preflight check he was in the air by half past nine. He set a non direct course for Morocco that took him by Calais and Paris France and hooked down to Barcelona and back to Madrid in Spain before he crossed over the Mediterranean and over Morocco. He flew over Tangier, Casablanca, and finally he landed outside of Marrakesh. As he passed over each city he dropped ten portkey buttons in fields outside of the city limits. The extra stops added an hour to his trip but it made sure he didn't have to make flights to those cities in the future. He set up a few buttons in the hard packed desert outside the city where he landed, he changed into his long coat, duster, and hat. He got on his horse and rode into city. He found the spice dealer with the information sent to him over his phone and walked into the large spice house. The smell hit him as soon as get close to the door. Cumin, turmeric, and something else was heavy in the air. He conjured a bandanna and tied it around his nose and mouth but still his eyes watered. A white man with very tanned skin dressed in a white caftan and red fez hat approached him. He saw Harry's bandanna and waved a wand in the air around them and the air cleared.

"Thank's, I'm Harry Steel. I'm here to collect a shipment?" he asked.

"Yes. It's in the back. You have carts?" The man asked in a french accent.

"Magic." Harry said.

"It's already compressed. It can not be compressed more." He said.

"No but my trunk can be expanded. Now lets see what we're working with." Harry said.

He was lead through the small factory where workers were grinding spices in big stone mills and filling huge six foot tall square canvas sacks. Harry was lead into a storage house full of piles of small one foot sacks. The man pointed at a big stack off to the side. The stack of small square sacks was ten foot high six foot deep and twelve foot wide. Harry did a rough count in his head. That was 720 sacks of spice. Harry looked at the huge stack and scratched his bearded chin, something he found himself doing more often now that his beard was thick. He had five trunks. He could expand the trunks to fit all this but them he couldn't shrink them down past the size of a foot locker which would be fine if he was able to portkey from the warehouse but he couldn't because the portkey wasn't invented yet and if they saw it they might figure it out and then why would they need to hire B&S Shipping? Even if he was portraying from the warehouse he didn't have enough portkeys for all of this and he only had his one horse.

"Like I said, you need carts." the man said with a smirk.

"Yes I've grossly underestimated the sheer volume of your shipment. Is there a Gringotts in the city or country?" Harry asked.

"It is in the Medina, the walled city center. It's east of here about ten miles. You will see the big gate. It's the big white stone building in the middle with the gold dome." He said.

"Right, I'm going to go buy a warehouse and some carts and we're going to cart this load out of here. I will be back in an hour." Harry said.

"Take your time were are just getting started for the day." He said.

Harry got on his horse and headed east to the walled city center. The streets were narrow and tight and vendors took up what little streets there was with rugs full of good and stands full of fruit and sacks of spices and grains. Harry saw the tall white building in the distance and made his way through the people and crowds to get there. The bank stood out like a beacon of calm in the bustling streets full of people. Harry got off his horse and tied it to the hitching post by the steps of the bank. He walked into the bank and was hit with a calming quiet the streets lacked. He walked up to a teller and with his name he was ushered into an office and shown warehouses outside the Medina where space was plentiful. Harry wasn't sure they would be doing too much business in the country so he bought the smallest warehouse he could. It was not too far from the spice factory, and it had living quarters already in place in the back of the building in the form of three small one bedroom apartments. Harry paid the ridiculously cheap price of 25 galleons and chipped in another ten for magical upgrades. For $875 he had a small building in Morocco. He also requested they send word to Abidjan where he was stopping next. He rode out of the city center and to the warehouse. Once inside he set up portkeys and he was about to call his sister when he remembered the time difference. It was almost noon here in Marrakesh that meant it was four in the morning in Nevada. Harry rode back to the spice house and told the owner his company would be sending out carts and workers to get the load in four hours. He then popped back out to the desert and took off heading south to the ivory coast.

It took only two hours of flying over the Sahara desert until the sand turned to lush green jungle. Once he got to the coast it took him another twenty minutes to find the small fishing town located around a small bay with a bigger island in the bay and small breaker islands that form the bay. There were a few bigger buildings but for the most part it was a small town. Harry passed over the bigger island in the bay and that's when he saw it. The island was about 8 miles long and 5 miles wide. It was covered by wards. There were bigger buildings like warehouses and deep water docks on the west side of the island. The east side of the island was set up like the french quarter in New Orleans. This was the magical city of Ivory.

But now that he found it he had another dilemma. There was no where to set down. So for the second time in 24 hours Harry had to do something dangerous and stupid. He climbed to 5,000 feet and slowed to almost stalling speed. He pulled out his cloak and broom, opened his cockpit canopy, and cast a air bubble around himself. He calmly put the cloak on, shut of the engine and as the plane started to fall Harry got on his broom and flew next to the invisible plane. He shrank it, summoned it, put it in his pocket, and costed down to the french quarter. When he landed in an alley close to the big white building with the gold Gringotts sign he felt the heat. It made sense, it was fall in the northern part of the world that meant it was spring down here. He ditched the cloak and put on his long suit jacket and wide brimmed hat. He turned the corner and walked up the steps of the bank.

An hour later Harry was the proud owner of a small but well built warehouse on the west end of the island where the factories and businesses were located. The warehouse had a nice dock, two floors, magical heating and cooling, and plumbing. For this little building he paid 40 galleons and for another 10 he got four apartments built on the second floor. $1,250. Not bad at all. Harry setup portkeys and soon he was sitting in the leaky cauldron in his English suit sipping a bottle of butter beer as he had his meat pie. Harry checked his watch and saw it was five after four in the afternoon. He was about to walk out and call his sister when he saw Hermione and Tommy walk in with Max on a leather leash and smiles on their faces. Harry tried very hard not to laugh when he saw his sister in a a dark red corset dress and big hat. She saw the look and gave him a 'don't you fucking laugh at me!' look and Harry bit his lip.

"Father! We saw Big Ben and Buckingham Palace and the Tower of London!" Tommy said coming over and hugging Harry.

"You did?" Harry asked with a smile. It still gave him a warm feeling in his chest every time Tommy called him father.

"We got up early and came over. I took him sightseeing." Hermione said sitting across from them in the booth.

"To almost all of touristy place in the city. Good job. You're only missing a few. Not bad for an hour." Harry said nodding.

"Well we can skip a few things like Tower Bridge because it's not there, and hide park at this point is muddy field after the rain this morning. We were planning on stopping into Harrods after we get Tommy his wand but aside from that there's not much left to see. We covered a lot of ground. Plus I had a good partner to help me get on and off my horse seeing as I had to ride side saddle." She said high fiving Tommy.

"Aunt Mia knows the fastest way to get around the city and with our horses it was easy to get around." Tommy said.

"Well let me pay the bill and get my coat and we'll be on our way I have to stop off at the bank at some point to cash a bank draft. We also need to stop off at the broom store and pick up the little man something with some zoom." Harry said tossing a wink at Tommy as he walked to the bar.

"Father looks tired. Is he okay to keep going?" Tommy asked.

"Harry's fine. Hopping time zones a fast as we do with magic messes with a wizards sense of time and that messes with his core a bit but Harry is a pro at this stuff. You'll see later when we head back you're going to feel really tired. But a good night's sleep will cure it. Harry has been in six different cities around the world in less than thirty hours. He'll be good as new later. The good news is he doesn't have to do this big of a trip again. I underestimated the size of our shipping company." She said with a smile as Harry walked back to the table with a bottle in his hand. He handed it to Tommy who looked at it.

"Butter beer?" Tommy read.

"It's good. Try it, you might like it." Harry said grabbing his top coat and top hat of the rack near by. Tommy took a drink and then he took a deeper one.

"Wow that's good!" He said.

"Maybe we can get a few cases on the way out." Harry said adjusting Tommy's top hat as they walked out the back door. Harry tapped the bricks and they walked into the alley. For Harry and Hermione this was nothing new, but for Tommy he was in awe.

They spent the next hour walking around the alley as they made their way to the other side were Ollivanders and Gringott were. Tommy looked in every store and asked questions about most of the stuff. Harry soon figured out that the knut was king in the alley. In the candy store a case of five chocolate frogs was a knut. A pound of Honeydukes candies was a knut. A pound of licorice wands was a knut. Harry handed Tommy two sickles and told him to go crazy. Harry shrank the bags just as Hermione walked in from the potions shop. Tommy and Harry high fived when her back was turned. The boys stopped off at a broom store as Hermione headed to a shop that sold tools and ingredients for enchantments. The boys browsed the brooms on display as well as the used stock and Harry was in classic broom heaven. They had Cannonball brooms and Silver Arrow brooms. When he spotted a mint condition Firebolt ONE he almost crapped his pants.

"How much for the Firebolt ONE?" Harry asked the man that ran the shop.

"6 Sickles. Of Course you can buy it new for a gold galleon." The man said.

"New?" Harry asked feeling light headed.

"Yes I have five in stock. I don't keep them on display because the cases take up a lot of space." The man said walking into the back room and bringing out a leather wrapped six foot long box that was a foot tall and a foot deep. He set the case on the counter and popped the latches on the top and the two haves of the case dropped to the side revealing the dark red wood broom with black and gold twigs and gold foot pegs sitting on three gold arms.

"My god." Harry said touching it with a shaking hand.

"Nice." Tommy said.

"It's more than nice. This is the greatest broom ever made. You say you have five in stock? Would you be willing to sell me all five?" Harry asked dropping five gold coins on the counter.

"You want all five? Sure! I mean you have the coin." The man said looking at the gold coins.

"Good. I'll take the five Firebolt ONEs, that mint condition Cannonball S, the Silver Arrow 1 with the optional silver inlay and gold twigs and is that a Clean Sweep Alpha with ebony wood and gold twigs?" Harry asked.

"Yes it is. I just got it in a few days ago." He said grabbing the broom off the wall pegs behind the counter. "It's so unbelievably smooth and shiny. Flawless finish. Clean Sweep is really putting their best foot forward with their first broom." He said handing the broom to Harry.

"I will take one of these as well. You see anything you like kid?" Harry asked looking down at the boy who was looking at the Firebolt ONE.

"Yes, all of it, but this red wood broom over here on the wall looks really nice." Tommy said.

Harry walked over and took the broom down for Tommy. It was a Nimbus 1900. It was deep red bent wood with gold inlays and brass foot pegs that looked like his Nimbus 2000. The twigs were a dark brown and bound to the broom with a brass ring.

"Nice choice son. You know my first broom was a Nimbus. I loved that broom." Harry said handing the broom to the boy.

"What happened to it?" Tommy asked.

"I got knocked out playing quidditch and my broom fell into a living tree who turned it into a piles of toothpicks." He said with a sad smile. "Add a new Nimbus 1900 to the pile. What's the damage?" Harry asked.

"Well you're looking at 5 galleons for the Firebolts ONEs, 8 Sickles for the Cannonball S, 6 sickles and 8 knuts for the Silver Arrow 1, 1 galleon for the Clean Sweep Alpha, and 6 sickles for the Nimbus. That comes to 8 galleons and 8 knuts." He said. Harry paid for all the brooms which came to $202 and shrank the cases.

"If you ever get your hands on a mint condition Moonshot with the silver inlay, or a Starliner in Cocobolo with the brass foot pegs I'd be willing to buy them off you for a gold galleon each, but I'm talking about mint. Like the Silver Arrow. If you get one send an owl to Blackwell and Steel Shipping here in London and they will get the message to me." Harry said handing the man a conjured card.

"I'll be on the lookout." He said with a big grin.

"Thank you. Come along Tommy." Harry said leading the boy out of the shop. "Tommy do you have any idea how much a Mint condition Firebolt ONE in it's case is worth? I've never seen one. A beat up ONE went for 250,000 galleons at an auction in 2013. These brooms are going in a vault. Neville is going to shit when he sees them." Harry said excitedly.

"You should do that with everything father. You know what going to be valuable later you should buy a lot of stuff and hold onto it." Tommy said.

"Good thinking son! I wonder what year the Ferrari factory opens? All I know is I'm buying two of everything they make. One in Ferrari red to keep in a vault and one in black or white to drive. Or maybe black and white so you can have one. I can't let my boy drive around in a crap car." Harry said slinging his arm around Tommy's shoulder as Hermione walked up to them. "Now let's go get you a wand." Harry said leading the group to Ollivander's.

The shop looked the same. The shelves full of wand boxes looked the same. The wand sitting on the silk pillow in the window looked the same. And when the old man appeared at the counter Ollivander was the same. It unnerved Harry and Hermione. Especially when the old man smiled at them like he was greeting old friends. His words made Harry start to panic.

"Ah, Mr. Potter, 11 inches, Holly, and phoenix tail feather nice and supple. Good for fighting dark lords. And Ms. Granger, Sorry Mrs. Longbottom, 10 ¾ inches, vine wood and a dragon heartstring. Good for advanced enchanting and curse braking. It's good to see you both." He said with a smile.

"How?" Harry asked pulling his Sig from the shoulder rig under his coat.

"No need for violence Mr. Potter. Not at all. It's quite easy to explain. I'm a seer of advanced power. I saw your trip back in time and with your trip I saw a dark future I hope you can stop from taking place." The old man said with a smile.

"Just how old are you? You look the same now as you did 110 years in the future." Harry said putting his gun back.

"I am at this moment 2,367 years old. Alchemy is a wonderful branch of magic is it not?" He said with an excited smile.

"You have a stone?" Hermione asked.

"Yes. Are you going to make one?" He asked her.

"No we're going to collect one lost to time. Are there any downsides?" She asked.

"I would be happy to discuss it with you at length but I believe we have a young man that needs a wand. wouldn't you say Mr. Steel?" He asked Tommy.

"Yes please!" Tommy said.

"Well let's see what we're working with. I have a feeling this is going to be a long process." He said looking at Tommy as a tape measure started shooting around Tommy. And he was right. It took 37 wands and they were still looking for a perfect match.

"You my child are as bad if not worse then your father was." He said walking off after the 37th wand attempt.

"Take it as a compliment. It means your magical core is picky. Picky magic cores are strong cores. Your core knows the wands don't match with the power you hold inside you. Over the last few weeks I've felt your core getting stronger as your body has gotten stronger. You are going to do great things son. Powerful things." Harry said crouching down to be on Tommy's level.

"Your father is right, the harder the match the more powerful the wizard. Now this is something I've had in my shop for a long time. I made it on a dare from a chinese wand maker and it's been sitting on my shelves ever since. It's made of Hungarian Horntail tail spike shaped with magic. The core is a Basilisk heart string. The end cap and handle is goblin deep mined silver. It's powerful, and if Harry was not your father I would never give this to a boy so young. But I trust him to keep you in line. It's one of my greatest creations and it scares me." He said turning the box and opening the lid the show off the bone white wand with a shiny ornate silver handle that was about an inch wide and tapered with the spike to a point. It looked like a big needle more than a wand but Tommy took it from it's case and a shower of dark red sparks shot out of the point as black lightning arched over the wand in his hand. His eyes glowed with power for a second before he blinked and there were back to their normal blue.

"My God." Tommy said looking at the wand.

"The wand chooses the wizard. It's powerful but it's grey. The core is good for dark magic, the spike is good for enchantments, the silver is good for curse breaking. It's also sharp enough to use as a dagger." Ollivander said.

"So cool." Tommy said.

"Hey kid pull your gun out of the shoulder rig and I'll show you how the wand holder works." Harry said helping the kid add the wand to the holder in the rig. When it was in there Harry turned around and looked at the very old man. "What's the damage?" Harry asked. Taking out ten gold coins.

"For that wand? 25 gold galleons." He said.

"Wow, okay. You can't argue price with a wand like that." Harry said handing over $625 worth of gold coins.

"Now, what can you tell me about the stone?" Hermione asked.

"A lot, I've made 23 of them I can make one for you for a price. It's something I would never do for anyone else but for you four warriors of light and dark? I would be willing to make it. I can tell you the stones I make grant you a hundred years a dose. Each stone makes five doses. It does give you a boost in power, but not a huge boost. It does affect the body though. You do not get younger. You stay the same age you are when you take it. I does make you sterile. No matter what kinds of potions you take you will not have children. Also you are down for weeks depending on how strong you are. For someone like Harry he might be in a coma for 7 days. For someone like you Mrs. Longbottom, you might be out for 12 days. That pretty much covers my blend. Other blends do other things but my mix gives you the best advantages without the bad side effects. The stone the Flemels make is a different blend. It has the power to turn lead into gold. It gives you a huge power boost, it also de-ages you a hundred years instead of extends your life. The downside is it can make you go loopy. Have you ever met the Flemels? They're not what you would call sane. Throughout time I've seen blends that give you physical strength. I've seen some the give you accelerated healing. It's a mix. Depending on how you make it you might get different results. I can guarantee my results. I've been taking it forever. I can test your stone for you. I've been practicing alchemy since before time was time." He said with a helpful grin and nod.

"We'll first need to get it but I think we can do both, why not have a back up? How much will a stone cost?" Harry asked.

"For the list of ingredients alone it's going to be 75,000 galleons. For the time it's going to take to find those ingredients, and to make the stone, plus I have to hire someone to run the shop for a few months, 30,000 galleons." He said still doing math in his head.

"105,000 Galleons? If we provide you with people to run your shop for you for free could you do it for 100,000 galleons? That's what? $2,500,000. Do you take gold and silver bars or do you need galleons? If so I can transfer 20,000 Galleons into your account right now and I can get you the the rest some time in the next two days." Harry said.

"Bars?" He asked.

"This it $100,000 worth of gold." Harry said pulling of the box of 10 bars he had on him at all times and showed it to the old wand maker. "We have trunks full of this stuff. Silver especially. We have crates of it. Silver is worth $10 an ounce. 400 ounces to a bar. $4,000 a bar. I can give you… how many bars is that Mia?" Harry said blinking as his brain finally gave out on him.

"625 Harry. We have that easy and we don't have to touch our gold reserve." Hermione supplied.

"Thanks Mia. I can have 7 crates of silver bars to you by tomorrow." Harry said.

"Um… that will work." Ollivander said looking at the bars with wide eyes.

"Good. I'll have someone drop off the crates tomorrow and Mia can help you with hiring a few shop assistants. Now if you will excuse me. I need a soft meal and a hot bed… no, reverse that." Harry said shaking his head.

"You'll have to excuse my brother, he's a bit loopy from time zone hopping. Come along Harry lets get you back to bed." Hermione said shrinking the box of gold and leading Harry out of the shop.

When they were outside she held out a portkey to Harry and Tommy and soon they were back in the cube in Nevada. Harry made it to his bed and got most of his suit off before he passed out. Tommy came by a few minutes later and saw his father lying face down across his bed in his boxers, black socks, and white button up shirt. Tommy collected the suit jacket and pants and laid them over the chair he took the gun out of the shoulder rig and set it on the bedside table. He picked up the top coat and top hat and he was about to walk out of the room when Harry's voice stopped him.

"Thank you son. Tomorrow I'll teach you to ride a broom." Harry said rolling his head to the side to see the boy.

"I can't wait. It's going to be fun. I'm headed to New York to keep uncle Neville company on his trip to Toronto. It's in Canada." Tommy said with a grin.

"Good boy. Keep your uncle company, keep the women safe and for god's sake don't eat your aunt Mia's cooking." Harry said half asleep.

"How Dare You!" Hermione called out from the hallway.

"Also she's got ears like a hawk, don't talk shit about your aunt. She will hear you." Harry said.

"I would never talk about my aunt Mia. She's the best. I love my aunt Mia." Tommy said.

"Good job kid, I even believed it. Still avoid the food." Harry said losing his fight with sleep.

"That father of yours is going to end up dead one day and it might be by my hand." Hermione said.

No one heard Harry say "by her cooking more like."


	6. Chapter 6

The rest of the week was spent making short hops to places like Vancouver, Niece, Berlin, and Harry's personal favorite Rome. Each trip brought with it a new place of business. They were now up to 14 warehouses around the world and their work force was now evenly distributed. And they could see they needed more workers as well as places to put them. Harry bought an apartment building in London with four floors and six two bedroom units on each floor to house the european workers that didn't fit in the spaces above warehouses or families with kids.

In New York they bought a big four floor apartment building that had 16 two bedroom apartments. While he was buying that apartment building the goblins sold him a gem of property that just came on the market the day before. It was a twelve floor apartment building on corner of Central Park West and 86th street that was built just two years ago. But had burned due to overcrowding and poor construction materials. No one died thankfully but the building was a shell full of fire damage. The Goblins promised him it would only take three weeks to rebuild and he could pick the look of the interior as well as the apartment sizes.

In the end they added 20 one bedroom apartments, 20 two bedroom apartments, 12 three bedroom apartments, 6 four bedroom apartments, and Harry had the top floor gutted and made a big six bedroom penthouse apartment. The price was 'steep' as the goblin said. 2,000 galleons for the building and the construction costs. $50,000. For that price Harry got a big redesigned lobby with floor to ceiling marble. Green and white marble tile throughout the building. Crown moldings. Three magical elevators. A fire sprinkler system. And a huge roof garden under a big glass greenhouse dome that was temperature controlled.

Harry signed the paperwork and told the goblins to keep the building under wraps for now. The building would be ready by mid December and he was planning on springing the penthouse on his family as an early gift. Over the next three weeks Harry looked in junk shops and furniture stores trying to find furniture for the place. He didn't want to fill the bedrooms up because he wanted them all to be able to design their own space. He did fix up most of the apartment in his manly style. White walls, dark wood trim, dark wood and leather furniture.

That friday the third week of November Harry Neville and Tommy headed out on a five day hunt. They dressed in jeans, boots, heavy wool sweaters, long brown leather dusters, and their wide brimmed hats. They took with them a pair of Beretta silver pigeon over under shotguns, as well as a pair of remington 870 express shotguns, and the Mossberg 500 pump shotgun he had in 20 gauge. They also took their winchester rifles and their gun belts. They loaded up on birdshot and buckshot shells and Hermione's tent. They took five trunks with cold enchantments on them. They headed out to Vancouver using a portkey to the warehouse and from there they headed east on horseback to Burnaby lake through the snow where they set up the tent.

For five days they got up with the sun, headed into the woods and shot things. By the time they came back on tuesday the last week in November they had five gib trunks of meat and the tent cold box was full. They shot four deer, a moose, and hundreds of birds like geese and ducks. They also had a huge eight foot tall brown bear and a pair of wolves that would not leave the campsite alone no matter how many times Harry scared them away. Right before they left they rode south to the Fraser River. Harry pulled out two regular trunks and lined the bottoms with dry ice he then summoned two dozen huge salmons out of the water and dropped them in the trunks. He shrank them and they portkeyed back to the cube where they were were treated to a hero's welcome.

The next day Harry took the trunks to a magical butcher shop and had them clean and butcher the animals. He had most of the birds wrapped in butcher's paper and he dropped off almost all of the birds and some venison cuts to his employees and gave them the next three days off for Thanksgiving with full pay and a $10 bonus for the extra work they would have to do on that upcoming Monday when they reopened after being closed for three days. He also shopped for groceries and went back to the cube to prep for tomorrow's big Thanksgiving meal.

He made a huge goose, four ducks, and six qual, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, broccoli with cheese, sweet potatoes, and cranberry sauce. They set up a big table in the Chicago warehouse and anyone that didn't have family or didn't feel like cooking came and had dinner with them.

After Thanksgiving, Christmas was in full swing with the first snow of the years in New York falling the day after Thanksgiving. For the next two weeks everyone was running around looking for presents. Tommy asked for his allowance, which he had failed to collect on a count of the fact that he never really bought anything when he was with his family. Harry paid him a month in a half back pay and two months in advance because Harry knew the boy wanted to buy them gifts for Christmas. $450 in coins was handed to Tommy in a little red magical coin bag. On Wednesday the second week in December Harry got a note from the bank telling him the building was ready. He hired a few wizard and squib family members of his work force to man the building and picked out the uniforms and had a half dozen made for each staff member of his building over the next two days.

On Friday Harry lead his family on a horseback tour of Central Park and at the end of the tour he lead them to the building. He stopped in front under the covered driveway and a doorman in a top coat and top hat came out and met him. 

"Good evening Mr. Steel. Welcome to Park Place." He said with a smile.

"Good evening Mike." Harry said shrinking his horse and looking at the rest of the group. "What I said we're going home after the tour of the park. Well we're home. Shrink your horses." Harry said waiting.

"You bought an apartment in the city?" Hermione asked shrinking her horse and helping Tommy with his.

"No, I bought a building. This is The Park Place Apartments. On Central Park West and 86th street. This is Mike Hamilton. He's David's brother." Harry said walking into the lobby as Mike held the door for them. They came in and were shocked by the huge twelve foot tall Christmas tree decorated with little white blown glass bulbs and fairy light. At the top was a big star made of glass that looked like ice. The lobby was green and white marble with big green marble pillars and dark green carpet runners. There were dark brown leather wing back chairs set off to the side in little corner alcoves with ashtray and newspaper racks. The front desk was a big mahogany wood bar with a huge wood mailbox grid covering the wall and a tall thin woman in her late teens with black hair pulled back into a bun. She was in a dark green dress with a white apron. She smiled a big smile when she saw them.

"Good evening Mr. Steel. You have a letter from the bank." She said getting on the short wooden ladder on a track and pulling a small letter from the top mail box.

"Thank you Bethany. Guys this is Bethany White, she's Margret's little sister." Harry said.

"It's nice to meet you all. Welcome to Park Place." She said waving at the rest of the group.

"We're turning in for the night Bethany. Is the kitchen staff on call tonight?" Harry asked.

"Yes and they, like the rest of us are bored out of our minds. When are we getting more tenets?" She asked.

"Soon Beth. Soon." Harry said walking to the elevator. He got on and made sure everyone was in before he hit the top button that said Penthouse. They rode to the top. When the doors opened up they saw a small entryway with green and white marble tile. Dark wood walls and a big green door with a gold knocker and a nameplate the read Blackwell and Steel. He opened the door with a gold key and let everyone in. The apartment was huge and with fifteen foot ceilings and green and white marble floors.

"Harry you're a madman." Neville said looking around the huge and mostly empty walls of the big hallways.

"Yes, but we needed a place to live. A real place! Not my cube. This place has six bedrooms, eight bathrooms, a huge kitchen, a living room, a study, a library, a formal dining room, a shooting parlor, a game room, and the whole roof is a glassed in french garden that's temperature controlled with a big 10x20 foot swimming pool and a hot tub. This place has it all and I went through after the goblins were done putting in the magical heating, cool, lighting, and plumbing and added magical power outlets on every wall. We never have to move." Harry said.

"Hold up, back up to the part where you said shooting parlor. You have a gun range?" Neville asked.

"No my brother, WE have a gun range. Follow me." Harry said leading them to the left. He opened a set of double doors and they were looking at a modern range that was 50x100 foot with a long table across the width of the room and gun racks on the wall with the door. On the back wall were thick metal plates and targets on stands that could be moved forwards or backwards and left or right. The room was under heavy wards. You could feel the magic in the room.

"Gun storage under the table to the right and there's room for ammo storage. The targets move and that back wall can withstand hits from my 500 nitro express rifle. I tested it." Harry said.

"So cool." Tommy said looking at the targets.

"Go ahead. Take a shot." Harry said calling a target forwards to ten feet. Tommy pulled his colt and took a shot. The gunshot sounded muffled and Tommy took a few more shots.

"Sound muffling charms all over this room. We can shoot all day in here and no one will know a thing." Harry said.

"Best. Room. Ever!" Neville said pulling his revolvers and shooting the shit out of the targets. Harry hit a button on the wall by the door and the holes in the targets vanished.

"I love you." Neville said pulling Harry into a tight hug.

"I know. This room was for you, Tommy, and me. Let me show you ladies your room." Harry said walking across the hall to the big double doors. He opened them and inside was a huge 50x100 foot library with a big fireplace. The walls were lined with floor to ceiling wood bookcases with a big wood and brass ladder on a track. Green carpet covered the floor and gave the room a warm feeling. There were two big dark wood desks facing each other from the left and right sides of the room with big leather office chairs. There was a big 4x12 foot dark wood table in the middle of the room with eight big brown leather chair. In front of the fireplace on the back wall were two big wingback leather chairs and a leather sofa. There was a door on the other side of the room.

"I love it." Hermione said walking to the desk on the right and sinking into the big leather desk chair. "Oh baby." She said with a sigh.

"I did good?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Very good." She said running her hand over the leather topped desk.

"Behind that door used to be a big bathroom. Now it's a lab space for you both." Harry said opening the door to show off the white tiled room with slate tables that looked like Hermione's lab from the DoM.

"Harry, it's like my lab." She said getting emotional.

"I know how much time you spent in that room and I wanted you have that space again." He said as she hugged him as she cried.

"Thank you Harry this is a great space." Abby said loving how soft her chair was.

"Well the game room is next door and the gentleman's study is next to the shoot room. The room at the end of the hall is what I'm most proud of." Harry said leading them to the living room.

The room like most of the apartment was big but this room felt smaller because of the big furniture in the room, the wood paneling on the walls, and the dark green carpet. There was a huge brown leather sofa facing the big fireplace and on each side of the sofa was a big leather wingback chair also angled at the fireplace. There was a big coffee table in front of the couch and each chair had an end table. Behind the couch was a long table that acted as a bar. It had a tray of heavy crystal glasses and a bunch of bottles. A big ice bucket and and a tea set rounded out the top of the table. There was a big brass telescope looking out the wall of windows that had big blackout curtains just waiting to be drawn. In the corner was a popcorn cart with paper buckets. This room was purpose built to watch TV and Harry's big 75 inch tv would look really good hanging above the fireplace.

"Not a bad place to keep Tommy's movie education going right?" Harry asked.

"So cool!" Tommy said.

"The game room has a real mahogany bar with a six bar stools, a 10 foot pool table, two dart boards, and a card table. I set up my stereo in the corner of the room and the place is going to be great. The study has two desk for me and Neville, a nice couch, a big humidor cabinet, and guns display cabinets. Each bedroom has an en suite bathroom. I'm on the end of the hall. Tommy the last door on the right, Abby you're next to him, Mia and Neville you the last door on the left. Now it's just after seven and the kitchen closes at nine. I want to get our order in." Harry said leading them to the doors off the main hallway into a big open kitchen made of white marble and white washed cabinets.

"What do you mean the kitchen closes?" Hermione asked looking around the big kitchen and the big marble island in the middle of the kitchen with six chairs on one side facing the stove and the sink. Harry picked up a leather menu holder and looked it over he touched his glowing finger to the menu and it stayed glowing.

"I mean there is a full kitchen downstairs like a hotel. If you can't cook or are too tired to cook yourself you pick up the menu, and tap the items you want and they bring it to your door on a room service cart and charge it to your monthly rent receipt. The meals are all reasonably priced depending on the cost of ingredients. At some point I'm going to hire a cleaning staff to clean the apartments for a small fee as well. Now look over the menu and see what you want for dinner." He said handing the menu to his sister.

"Oh Lamb chops with mint jelly and new potatoes and asparagus." Hermione said. "Wait before I touch this who is making this meal?" She asked.

"A chef I stole from a very fancy restaurant here in Manhattan called the Green Room. His name is chef Jon Philip Payard. He has a staff of five and we are the only ones in the building aside from the six staff members and his team of chefs. Now pick." Harry said.

They all made their choices and Harry closed the menu holder and taped it twice. It flashed and Harry smirked.

"This is so cool. As we speak the kitchen just got our order and they are making it. The cart should be here in twenty minutes." Harry said checking his watch.

"Harry, how much did all of this cost?" Hermione asked.

"For the building, the repairs and all the custom stuff I added it came to $56,000. The furniture I added to this apartment and the rest of the 58 apartments was another $4,000. The three doormen, two desk clerks, and the janitor all get paid $10 a day. The head chef gets $15 but his staff of five cooks get $10 a day. The staff all have one bedroom apartments in the building for free except the head chef he has a two bedroom unit because he has a family. All together it costs $125 a day to run this place. Not bad when you consider the profits we can gain by filling this place with wealthy upper crust magical families in the bigger units. Figure 20 galleons a month for the 19 two bedroom units, 25 for the 12 three bedroom units, and 30 for the 6 four bedroom units. If we fill the building that's 860 galleons a month. That's…"

"$21,500 Harry." Hermione said.

"There you go. Times 12 months and we're north of $250,000 a year." He said.

"$258,000 and the cost of staff for a year is, $45,625. Really good Harry. But who's going to pay that much to live in the building?" Hermione asked.

"Rich wizards that want posh living overlooking the park. The building has goblin wards. The only place you can get in or out of the building magically is through the lobby where there's a doorman on guard wearing a dragon hide vest and carrying a Lemat revolver. The clerk has a panic button under the front desk that locks down the building with a stronger set of wards. There is a fire sprinkler system. Free lighting, heating and cooling, hot water, and a kitchen that makes five star meals 15 hours a day, everyday at three star prices. There's a full basement and sub basement to store horses and carriages. We need to hire a few stable boys by the way, I forgot about that. Crap. But as soon as cars become a thing we're kicking out the horses and we have a big garage." Harry said.

They heard a door bell and Harry hopped out of his seat and got the door. He came back into the kitchen leading two men is chef's jackets and hats pushing two very big food carts. The chefs put the plates in front of them and took the carts. Harry handed each man a $5 coin.

"Man this is good." Neville said enjoying the rack of venison.

"I'm glad you like it. It's the deer you shot." Harry said.

"Really?" He asked.

"Yes, it's how we can keep the costs down, the boys downstairs are great butchers. They're the guys that butchered those trunks of meat in half a day. Speaking of which the magical taxidermy place has our trophies ready. I figured we could fill the walls of this place. All the animals we kill they will serve downstairs. Even the bear and the wolves. If you get past the stigma of eating a dog the wolf stew Jon Philip makes is out of this world. Any animal we bring him he can make. He likes the challenge. I told him we would go on a rabbit hunt soon. He says he has a braised rabbit dish that I have to try. I figured we can go this weekend. Take a quick flight from Chicago to Kansas for deer and rabbits like the taxidermy guy said." Harry said looking at Tommy and Neville.

"Sounds good to me." Neville said.

"You know I love to hunt." Tommy said.

"I would like to join you if you don't mind? I was a hunter growing up and I would love to get out there and bag some game." Abby said.

"Good, we'll head out in the morning. Then on Monday we need to finish furnishing this house. For now we can put some the of furniture from the cube in this house but later I want you all to set up your space the way you want. And Neville, Mia, if you want to take an apartment…"

"NO! Are you crazy?! We're family. The only family we have. We're never not sharing a house. And besides, we're going to need the space. We need to turn one of the bedrooms into a nursery." Hermione said with a grin.

"Really!?" Harry asked.

"I figured it out this morning, I ran the test. Twins. A boy and a girl." Hermione said taking Neville's hand.

"I didn't even know you guys were trying to have a kid." Harry said hugging the both of them.

"We weren't but after Ollivander said we couldn't have one after we take the elixir I made a fertility potion and I've been taking it for a few weeks. I wanted to have at least one before we take the potion. Be careful what you wish for I guess, we're having two at once." She said holding her belly.

"I would like a child as well. I've been taking the potion." Abby said blushing and looking down at her plate.

"Oh?... OH!" Harry said feeling really warm all of a sudden. "Um, I think maybe, um we should spend some time getting to know… man this is awkward." Harry said pulling at his collar.

"There is no rush, the potion won't be ready for a year and it will keep for a while but…" Abby trailed off.

"Man you two are the worst. Why don't you take Abby with you on the flight to Kansas from Chicago and find us a good place to set up camp. When you got a place call and we'll send Tommy. You three can hunt and I can spend some time finding our next gold mine." Neville said.

"Sounds like a good plan. We'll portkey out at 6, that's five Chicago time. Is that a good time for you?" Harry asked looking at Abby.

"Yes, that sounds good. I may have to borrow a few things from your closet if you don't mind?" She asked.

"Not at all. I'm going to empty my room from the cube into my room here in the apartment. Stop by later and you can take what you need." Harry said.

When they were done with dinner Harry tapped the menu holder and two chefs came to the door to collect the plates, cutlery, and glasses. An older fatter man followed them in dressed in a taller chef's hat.

"How was dinner this evening?" He asked in a heavy french accent.

"Perfect Jon Philip. You made this first night at Park Place just perfect." Harry said shaking the man's hand and slipping a Gold Galleon into his pocket.

"Good, filling bellies with good food makes me happy." He said with a big smile.

"You are all getting a raise for the first week. I know there's not a lot of orders now but after the new year we're going to be flooded with new residents and your kitchen is going to be swamped with orders." Harry said.

"I look forwards to it. I noticed you did not order dessert. So I brought you up a small tasting tray for you to try." He said as a third chef set a silver tray with little plates of small cakes and tarts. "We will take the tray when we send up breakfast. I make craps full of chocolate mousse and raspberry preserves. I went to the market today. I got a case of preserves at a very good price." He said.

"That sounds good Philip. Have two plates sent up first thing. Two of us are getting an early. And lots of bacon." Harry said tipping them all a $5 coin as he walked them out.

That night Harry expanded the cube in the big hallway of the bedroom wing so they could all get the things they needed to set up their rooms. For Harry it was just his bed and most of his clothes which he did quickly so he could help Tommy move most of the blue room furniture into the new bedroom. When they were done they looked around the big 20x30 foot white room that was as big as a one bedroom apartment with the white furniture and the white and green marble tile floor and they shared a look.

"We need color in this room, desperately. And a lot more furniture." Harry said.

"What's your room look like?" Tommy asked.

"Let me show you." Harry said walking into his room at the end of the hall.

If Tommy's room was huge this room looked ridiculous. The room was 40x40. The walls were dark green on top with a wide dark wood chair rail and wood paneling under that. The floor was also dark wood. There was a big fireplace opposite the bed with a leather couch and two chairs. The back wall was covered in big windows with heavy dark green blackout curtains. Hanging above the fireplace was a heavy black banner with the hose Steel wolf's head in profile and the word STEEL in block letters. There were two doors on the left side of the room and one door on the right. There was a big green oriental rug under the big king sized four post bed made of dark wood with dark green curtains and bedding.

"What's through the doors?" Tommy asked.

"On the right side is the master bathroom and on the left is the his and hers walk in closets. But what I'm most proud of is this room." Harry said walking to the blank wall on the right side of the room and putting his hand on the wall. A door opened in and Harry showed him a 10x15 foot room with plate steel walls, floor, and ceiling. There were shelves all the way around the room that were mostly empty except for the shelves labeled Brooms and Bars. He saw the shrunken brooms and broom cases, and on the other shelf he saw a stack of shrunken gold, silver, copper, and iron bars.

"Cool, a vault room." Tommy said.

"I made it so we can store things like cars and brooms and gold bars." Harry said.

"You need a room to store guns." Tommy said.

"That's in the study. Come see, it's great." Harry said leading him out of the bedroom and to the other side of the house to the study.

The room was a 20x20 room with floor to ceiling wood. A dark green rug took up the middle of the room. Around the room on every available wall space were wood display cases with glass doors and glass shelves. There were two big wood desks one on each side of the room facing each other. In the middle was a big table with a leather top and gunsmithing tools. Around the room were small display case tables with guns.

"What do you think? I plan on putting a few stuffed animals in this room. Like the wolves, or maybe a lion or tiger and the walls above the cabinets are going to be filled with trophy heads. You want to go on a safari?" Harry asked.

"Sure, I wonder what lion taste like?" Tommy said.

"Well it's cat so I'm guessing it taste like the bad chinese food place that was around the corner from the Leaky Cauldron." Harry said.

"What?" Tommy asked.

"Nothing. It's a joke Neville will get. I figured we can put a smaller desk in here by the windows in that corner if you want." Harry said.

"Yeah, although I can tell you right now I'm going to be spending most of my time in the shooting room." Tommy said.

"Good. I got a line on crates of Ammo from the Colt factory. I picked up four crates of .38lc, two crates of colt .45, and a crate each of .44 and .45-70. At the price I paid it came out to 3 rounds for a penny. And I can get more anytime I want. So shoot till your arm feels like it's going to fall off." Harry said.

"Awesome!" Tommy said.

"Who taught you that one?" Harry asked.

"Uncle Neville." Tommy said grinning.

"Good job. Oh before I forget I have Smith working on a winchester rifle in .38lc for you and the agents. It's going to be a shorter carbine size and we're also looking to pack more punch in a .38lc." Harry said.

"A rifle sounds nice but you don't have to keep buying me things." Tommy said.

"I don't have to, but I like to. I like buying things because when I was little I was treated like a slave by my evil family and I never had anything nice. I would go to the store with my 'family' and they would buy my fat evil little shithead cousin everything and I could just look at things. As soon as I found out I had money I bought everything. Now if I see something I like I buy it. When I see something someone else would like I buy it too. When I started working as an Operative and I could keep anything I took off bad guys, I went a little nuts. I'm like a goldfish, I like shiny things. It does make buying me gifts hard on people. But I like the thought behind everything I get." Harry said.

"In that case I'll take one of everything." Tommy said with a smirk.

"You've been hanging out with my smart ass sister too much." Harry said leading the boy out of the room and almost right into Hermione who did not look happy.

"Smart ass?" She asked in a tone Harry knew well.

"I meant it in the best possible way." Harry said.

"Did you?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"Sure did." Harry said without missing a beat.

"Harry, can I look through your things now?" Abby asked from down the hall.

"Sure can. Come on Tommy. We can get your things from the cube." He said leading Tommy away. "That was close. It looks like those hormones are kicking in early." Harry said to Tommy and got shot in the ass with a lightning bolt. He jumped three feet in the air and yelped. But he kept walking and never turned back or said anything else.

"You definitely deserved that." Tommy said walking into the cube to get his clothes.

"Deserved what?" Abby asked.

"Mia shot me in the ass with a lightning bolt spell for talking trash." Harry said leading her into his huge bedroom and into his big 6x12 foot closet that was wall to wall dark red wood and green carpet with a big dressing table in the center of the room and a green bench in the back for tying your shoes. On the table was a rolled out sheet of leather and sitting on the table were the guns he used everyday and the leather holsters that went with it. "Now what can I get you?" Harry asked.

"Well I have jeans and a heavy wool sweater, but I was hoping to barrow a long leather duster. Also if you have an extra pair of riding boots I would love to borrow those as well, my only boots are kind of short and we're going to be trekking through some heavy snow." She said.

"I have all of those. You're lucky I buy in bulk when I find something good I like. Let's see, this is my extra duster, and my shoes are over on this side let's see, how about these brown riding boots?" He asked pulling a pair of dark brown leather riding boots off a shelf.

"Perfect. I have a hat. What I need is some guns but I figured you're the guy to talk to about that." She said waving at the table.

"Yes, you've come to the right place. What would you like? I have more modern guns and ammo in the cube and period correct weapons here and in the study." Harry asked.

"Well we're going rabbit hunting and deer hunting. What are you taking?" She asked.

"I have a couple of Ruger 10/22s in the cube I was going to get them out and see what we have. I know I have a full custom job and a 10/22 takedown I my survival kit in my plane which I totally forgot I had until I saw it a few days ago. I have about ten thousand rounds of 22lr. CCI Mini Mag in 100 round sleeves. I have at least two more .22 rifles. For deer I like using the winchester .45-70 I have. It shoots straight and hits like a freight train. I have trunks full of guns and trunks full of ammo we can look at. If you want a six gun I have few gun belts hanging on a coat rack in the study." Harry said.

"I'll take one of the .22 rifles for rabbit, and I'll find a nice rifle in the trunks. I think I'll take a gun belt with a colt lighting. I'm not sure I need to try it out." She said.

"We do have a gun range. We can test all you want. Let's go find you a gun." Harry said looking excited.

Thanks to his sister's OCD need to sort and label everything they found the trunk with small arms. Harry pulling out an empty trunk and tossed the three .22 rifles and the four .22 handguns in the trunk. He moved on to a trunk marked large caliber and found four .308 rifles. Two Remington 700 rifles, a tactical custom job, and Harry's personal favorite the Nemesis Arms vanquish takedown rifle. In the ammo boxes he found an ammo can full of match grade .308, two cans of NATO 7.62x51, and the expanded case full of .22lr mini mag. He tossed it all in his trunk and took it to the shooting range.

"Let's see how these shoot. We don't have a long range but we do have small targets." Harry said setting up the range with five very small six inch targets at the back of the 100 foot range.

"I like this custom Ruger 10/22." She said loading the rotary magazine.

"That's because it's my Volquartsen rifle. Black rubber composite stock, carbon fiber barrel, magically enhanced 4x12 optic, 100 round magazine, magical silencing charm, and a one pound short travel trigger. I've killed a man at 350 feet with head shot using that rifle." Harry said.

"So I'm guessing you're going to want this one?" She asked.

"No, you can use it, but if I ever have to kill a terrorist in a crowd of civilians I'm going to need it back." Harry said loading the custom takedown Ruger 10/22 with a nice Hogue rubber stock, bull barrel with an integrated silencer, and a nice Leupold VX2 4x12 scop. He set the other Ruger 10/22 takedown with the wood stock, stainless steel acton and barrel, and a nice brushed aluminum scope aside for Tommy. He looked at the four handguns. He set the Ruger 22/45 with the integrated silencer aside for himself if he needed it. He was left with a stainless steel Ruger single six revolver that looked like his colt peacemaker, a Taurus pt22 in stainless steel with green pearl grips and gold controls, and a very nice engraved Colt ACE 1911 with pearl grips. He put the Colt ACE away for Tommy for Christmas, and left the other two guns on the table for the boy. He looked up and saw Abby standing in a target shooting stance using her left elbow buried in her waist to stabilize her support hand and her body was ramrod straight. She had, by this point, turned four of the small 6 inch target into donuts and was working on the last one. Her stance was perfect, her technique was flawless, and Harry was very much turned on at this moment.

"How did I do? Am I rusty? It's been awhile since I shot a rifle." She asked looking up and seeing him watch her.

"Flawless. You're stance and trigger control is better than mine and I'm a professional killer." Harry said.

"Well I was junior all state 3 gun champion in the great state of Texas 2002 and 2003." She said with a southern twang.

"Well I must say little lady you're shooten' is mighty fine and dandy." Harry said matching her twang.

"Thank you mister, my grandpappy would be mighty proud of me for rememberin' my trainin." She said smiling sadly.

"You grew up in Texas?" Harry asked.

"Sure did, from the time is was six when my parents died I was moved from New York to Texas to live with my grandparents on my mother's side. They owned a cattle ranch and I grew up riding horses, shooting guns, and wearing cowboy hats and boots." She said with a girn.

"You were a little cowgirl? Now that's cute." He said fixing the targets with the button on the wall and trying to match her performance.

"Yeah, I was a regular Annie Oakley as a kid. But when I got my letter to Salem I put down the guns, got off my horse, and hit the books hard. At one point I wanted to be a curse breaker for Gringotts like my parents, but my grandfather, on his deathbed, made me promise to never work for the bank that killed my parents. That was five years ago. I didn't know what to do with myself after that. It's why I kept studying. I was in a holding pattern until something good came along." She said looking over the two Remington 700 rifles.

"Your parents were curse breakers?" Harry asked making a few adjustments to the scope. He knew she wanted to talk and he wanted to listen but he knew she wanted to make sure he wanted to listen so he kept up the prompts for more.

"They thought they were Indiana Jones. Potkeying around the world to hunt treasures. They met on the job, they fell in love on the job, and they barely took time off from the job to have me. They handed me off to nannies as soon as they could to go back to the job. When I was five they enrolled me in a boarding school for girls. A year later when I found out they died in a tomb in South America I wasn't shocked. It was bound to happen one day. Nothing really changed for me. I spent most of the year in Cambridge Massachusetts and my summers on a cattle ranch in Texas shooting things and riding horses. After I got my Salem letter I spent most of the year in Salem and my summers in Texas learning all the things I missed by attending Salem. Math, chemistry, literature, and languages. Of course my grandma made me compete in pageants like a good southern girl." She said working the action on the black Remington 700 rifle.

"Pageants?" Harry asked with a smirk as he put together the Nemesis Vanquish takedown rifle.

"You're looking at miss teen Texas 2010 Mister." She said holding the rifle on her hip and she smiled really big showing off her perfect white teeth.

"My God, now that I see it I can't unsee it. You had big hair and everything didn't you?" Harry asked.

"You know it. You can't be Miss Texas without big hair darlin." She said.

"Tell me you have photos?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"I have one better than that. In my closet in the tent, in a shrunken trunk I have my crown and my sash." She said laughing. "I'm going to test out this Magpul Remington 700. Is it going to be too loud for this room? Do we have ear pro?" She asked grabbing an ammo can.

"The charms on the room will take care of that but in the field we'll cast a sound deadening spell around the gun. Shoot away, save the match grade .308 for hunting and use the NATO 7.62x51 it's…."

"The same round and you can shoot it out of a .308 but not the other way around. I know, like I said Junior 3 gun champion. How much shooting do you think I did as a kid? My grandpa used to buy crates of bulk NATO brass. I can only imagine how much NATO 9mm I went through." She said loading the detachable 10 round magazine.

"What was your gun of choice? We probably have a dozen of them in a trunk." Harry asked loading the 10 round mag for the NA Vanquish rifle.

"I used to use a stock Wilson Combat classic 1911 in 9mm. I ran in the junior iron division. I ran a Remington 700 just like this one and a Remington pump 12 gauge." She said falling back into the standing target rifle shooting stance.

She took a breath and squeezed the trigger. The rifle made a small bang sound in the muffled room. She didn't flinch, or move too much with the shot she just worked the bolt action as she let out the breath. She took another breath, held it in, fired, worked the action as she exhaled. Harry stood there for a minute and watched her finish off the ten round magazine. When she was empty she dropped the mag and set the rifle down on the table in front of her in one fluid motion. She looked up and saw Harry staring at her.

"What?" She asked.

"Nothing. I'll be back in a minute. Keep going, you're doing great." Harry said walking out of the room in a daze. Abby loaded the box mag again with a smirk.

"Where's the fire?" Hermione asked Harry who was rushing out of the cube as she walked in.

"Did you know Abby was a junior 3 gun champion?" Harry asked.

"No, what's 3 gun?" She asked with an innocent smile.

"Right, is there anything else I should know about the extremely hot young woman that very much wants into my bed? Anything at all?" Harry asked.

"I know loads, I've spent two months talking to her. But I think you should find out for yourself. If I told you things like she knows how to handle a gun better then you can you would nod and say okay. But if you see her doing it? Two months of me hinting and pushing got us nowhere. So I said we needed to try something different. Well, you seem a lot more interested in the girl now then you did a half hour ago aren't you?" She said with a big grin.

"You, my dear sister, are a very devious woman. You played me, and I love you for it." Harry said hugging her.

"Good, it's been too long since you had a relationship with a nice girl. And meeting up with foreign spies to use each other for sex does not count as a relationship. The last girl you had a real relationship with was Susan Bones and that was ten years ago." She said patting him on the cheek.

"Love is complicated when you live the life of a spy and a killer." Harry said looking sad.

"Well you're not a spy and a killer now are you? You're a slightly respectable businessman and father. It's time to settle down and Abby is a good girl." She said.

"I know, and I'm willing to try. Now if you'll excuse me I want to see a very hot blonde shoot stuff." Harry said practically jogging down the hall.

Harry walked into the room holding a canvas sack. He dumped it on the table and six 1911s fell out of the bag along with a shrunken trunk and a dozen magazines.

"Show me?" Harry asked.

"I'd love to." She said taking a Wilson Combat X-Tac Elite off the table. Harry expanded the trunk and opened it for her. Inside was a big pile of loose 9mm rounds. She grabbed a standard 9 round mag and loaded it. She inserted the mag and loaded another one as Harry changed one of the small 6 inch targets on the back wall into a silhouette target 20 feet away. She chambered a round, set the gun on the table, squared up to the target, picked up the gun off the table, and emptied all 9 rounds center mass in four seconds. She dropped the mag and inserted the second one in one fluid motion, the slide slammed home as she squared up and she empted the next 9 rounds in an even tighter group than the first 9 rounds. She put the safety on and set the gun on the table.

"Marry me?" Harry said before his brain caught up to him.

"That's the idea, but I think we should try going out first." She said laughing.

"What?" Harry asked blinking.

"You just asked me to marry you. I said we should probably go on a date first." She said laughing.

"Right, good thinking." Harry said blushing and clearing his throat.

"You're cute when you're flustered." She said walking up to him and pulling him into a kiss. It took Harry a second to catch on but when he did Abby was pleasantly surprised by his intensity.

"Hmm hmm." Tommy cleared his throat from the door. "Um, I was just coming to tell you that I'm not coming on the hunt, I want to stay here with uncle Neville, he said he wanted to search for another mine and the last time we were out there that pack of coyotes kept sneaking up so I'm going to ride around the mine keeping an eye out for them and watch uncle Neville's back." Tommy said.

"Okay, I'm going to drop a few portkey buttons so we'll be able to head out there later in the week. You sure you want to skip it?" Harry asked.

"Yeah dad, I don't trust those coyotes. Uncle Neville said the new mine is close to the last one and that's right in their hunting zone. The blasting does not scare them off. I'm either going to have a boring weekend riding around patrolling for nothing or I'm going to have four coyotes to stuff for my room." Tommy said trying to hide the smirk on his face as he looked between the two adults.

"Okay son. Good hunting. And make sure your aunt eats. She works hard and sometimes she forgets. She's eating for two now. Also make sure she orders something and doesn't cook. We don't want her getting sick." Harry said trying not to laugh. .

"HOW DARE YOU!" He heard through the door, which made them all laugh.

"I love you too sister." Harry said.

"Fuck you." He got back.

"Okay." Harry said.

"I'll go now. I wanted to watch a movie tonight and Uncle Neville said he would help me move the tv into the family room." Tommy said.

"We'll be in there in a bit." Harry said patting the boy on the back as he walked out of the room.

"So, where were we?" Abby asked with a smirk.

"You were making a move on me and I was responding in kind." Harry said stepping closer.

"Right, now I remember." She said as Harry got right in front of her.

"Now I think it's my turn to make a move." Harry said placing his hand on her cheek as he leaned in and kissed her. She responded by deepening the kiss.

"Wow." He said pulling back a minute later.

"Yeah. It's been awhile since I've been kissed like that." She said.

"It's been awhile since I've been kissed like that." Harry said with a smirk.

"We should fix that." She said kissing him again.

Ten minutes later there was a knock at the door and Neville stuck his head in the room and found Harry sitting in a chair with Abby in his lap, both of their shirts were on the floor, and along with Abby's bra. When he figured out what was going on he slammed the door shut. For their part when they saw him Abby hugged Harry tight and blushed.

"Um, the movie's on. Tommy asked if you were coming, so I said I'd stop by on the way back from the can. But I see that you're busy." He said from the other side of the door.

"We're coming, ummm, give us a minute." Harry said.

"Right, I'll tell him you two were cleaning your guns." Neville said walking away laughing.

"There are entirely too many people in this house. But their family so I can't kill them." Abby said summoning her bra and pulling it on.

"I'd invite you back to my room later but I think I should at the very least buy you dinner first." Harry said standing up.

"Technically, you bought me dinner on a few occasions." She said.

"True, but let me put it this way. We've never spent time together just you and me. I will admit that we spent a half hour together and we practically attacked each other so the attraction is there but can we have a normal conversation? Be in the same room together for more than an hour without feeling trapped? You're proposing a lot more than a roll in the hey and I'm pretty sure I'm cool with it. Hell I'm getting the good side of the bargain here. You're a 23 year old tall stacked blonde with brains to match the good looks. Had I met you in the halls of the DoM we would have started dating a long time ago. The thing is we're stuck in the past, and we're most likely the best fit for each other but in the absence of choice the best option in the world looks kind of shitty. I just want to make sure we don't hook up, have a kid, and in two years you roll over in bed and see my snoring face and want to smother me with a pillow." Harry said pulling on his shirt.

"I get it. But I've made my choice. You're sexy, powerful, and you look good in a suit. I love watching you with Tommy, and he's a bonus I didn't even think about. I love that kid. You're the only man that won't treat me like a piece of meat in this time, and the only one that washes everyday. For me the choice is easy, but I understand what you mean. You might hog the covers, or have cold feet, or the worst, sharp toenails." She said making a face.

"No, I magic mine away as soon as they grow. The same with fingernails." Harry said laughing.

"Good, now I just have to see if you snore." She said fixing her shirt.

"It's a shame to see them go." Harry said watching her button her shirt.

"Trust me they didn't want to go." She said.

"I must say, and this is not me blowing smoke up your ass, you are bar far the most beautiful woman I've ever had the pleasure of seeing naked." Harry said fixing his shirt.

"Thank you, you're not too bad yourself. There's still a lot of tight muscle under your shirt for an old guy." She said walking out of the room.

"Old guy!? I'm in my prime! In fact this is the best shape I've ever been in." Harry said said following her out of the room. He caught up to her in the hallway and grabbed her around the waist and picked her up off the ground and making her giggle. "I'm not so old." He said kissing her as he sat her down.

"I know, but I didn't want to give you a big head." She said.

"Too late." Harry said leading her into the living room by the small of her back. Neville was sitting on one end of the couch and Hermione was sitting next to him leaning against his chest with her feet on the couch. Tommy was sitting on the other end of the couch engrossed in Sherlock Holmes. "Oh nice! I love this movie. I love the books too." Harry said dropping into a recliner. Abby stood next to the recliner.

"Make room for me." She said.

"Okay," Harry said waving at the chair, it widened out enough for her to sit but close to him. "There, Better?" He asked.

"Yes," She said dropping in next to him and leaning into his side. Harry put his arm around her and she smiled. "Better." She said.

Soon she was out like a light. Followed by Hermione and Neville. Harry and Tommy were the only one that made it to the end of the movie and when it was over Tommy woke Neville up who picked up his wife and carried her to their bedroom. Tommy followed with Max and Harry picked up Abby. She woke up just long enough to put her arms around his neck and tuck her head into his chest. They walked to the other side of the house and everyone headed into a room with a 'Goodnight' muttered as doors were opened and closed. Harry was about to walk into Abby's room when she stopped him with a hand on his chest.

"Your room." She said.

"I thought we agreed we were going to wait a bit?" Harry asked looking down at her.

"We are, but your warm, and I'm tired of sleeping alone." She said.

"Okay, I'm just trying to give this the best shot at working. I was busy when we first got here and now that I have time I want to try to make this work." Harry said carrying her into his big ass room. He set her on the big bed and he unbuttoned his shirt as he walked over to the closet to change but she stopped him and took his button up shirt off him. She stripped to her little black thong and put his shirt on. She buttoned half the buttons from the middle and slipped under the covers. Harry walked into his closet and hung up his suit pants next to the jacket he took off earlier. He walked back into his room in his boxers and t-shirt and slipped into bed. He shut the lights off with a wave of his hand and laid back in bed. Abby rolled over and cuddled up to his side. She sighed as she started to fall back asleep.

"This is much better." She said with a smile.

"Good, as long as you're happy I'm happy." Harry said wrapping his arm around her. Sleep took him after he set his phone alarm and that night, despite being in a new space which always made him edgy, he slept great. He hadn't slept this good in ten years. A part of his mind said, "You mean since Susan left you?" And Harry nodded in his sleep. Since Susan left him.


	7. Chapter 7

Five o'clock came soon enough and with it his phone beeped. Harry stiffened up when he came to because he felt someone laying on his chest. He opened his eyes and saw Abby's face looking confused. Harry reached over and shut off his alarm. He turned back to her and she was smiling down at him.

"Hi," she said feeling shy all of a sudden.

"Hi yourself, did you sleep well?" Harry asked putting his hand on her back and tracing her spine with his fingers as he rubbed her back.

"I did. I didn't crush you did i?" She asked.

"No, I haven't slept this good in ten years. You were right. Sleeping alone sucks." Harry said with a smile.

"It does. So does that mean I don't have to sleep alone from now on?" She asked.

"You don't have to sleep alone, and neither do I. But I do have to take a shower and get dressed. The problem is I don't feel like moving." Harry said.

"Neither do I. I would be happy to spend the rest of my day like this." She said grinning down at him.

"Then let's stay like this." Harry said cupping her cheek in his hand.

"I wish we could but you had plans today and we have to at least fly to Kansas and set up portkeys so you can go hunting with Tommy in a few days. You said the chef wanted rabbits and we needed more deer. So we have to get up. The problem is this bed is warm and the floor looks cold. And I have a long walk to my room to get my things." She said.

"That is a dilemma. How about this, I'll summon my heavy bathrobe, and you can wear that to your room?" Harry asked.

"Sounds good. My feet are still going to be cold." She said.

"You can borrow a pair of my slippers." Harry said holding out his hand, a second later a heavily white bathrobe and a pair of red velvet smoking slippers came floating to the bed.

"Let me up?" He asked before rolling her off his chest. He slipped out of the bed and took the robe out of the air and held it out for her. She got out of bed and steep into his big slippers, they formed to her feet and Harry put the warm robe on her. He tied it up tight and used the rope to pull her close and give her a quick kiss.

"I really did sleep great last night." He said.

"Good, because when we get back I'm moving in here." She said walking out of the room.

Harry got dressed in jeans, riding boots, a wool sweater, his wide brimmed wool hat, and long brown leather duster. He pulled on his gun belt and his shoulder rig. He packed a few things into his bag before he headed to the shooting room. He put the rifles they picked last night into his bag along with the two ammo cans, he took the two WIlson Combat 1911s in 9mm off the table. The X-tac Elite 1911 she used last night and a full sized CQB Elite 1911 in stainless steel and put them in his bag along with a small sack of loose 9mm. He loaded the four Wilson Combat magazines, loaded the X-tac, and tossed the rest of the mags in his bag. He stopped off at his study and tossed three gun belts into his bag. He took three revolvers out of the case and six boxes of ammo. Harry walked into the kitchen and saw Abby sitting at the counter eating a plate of crepes. She had on the same thing he did but she looked so much better. He sat next to her and smiled when he saw she had chocolate on her chin.

"Is it good?" He asked.

"Yes, very good." She said.

"Good I'm hungry."

After a quiet breakfast they headed out. They portkeyed from the lobby to the farm outside of Chicago. They landed in knee deep snow. It was still dark here, being an hour behind. Harry expanded his plane and went over a preflight check.

"Harry, this snow is pretty deep, are you going to be able to take off in snow this deep?" She asked.

"It should be fine. As long as the snow is not blocking the prop the plane should be fine. I'm just going to need more take off space. The plane is charmed, each part is enchanted to be lighter and stronger. The landing gear is pretty much indestructible." Harry said hopping up onto the wing and switching out his long coat for his flight jacket. What he didn't say was landing was going to be interesting.

"I've got to ask, what's with the flight jacket? Everytime I see you get in that plane you put on the jacket." She said.

"It has a heating charm and it has a feather fall enchantment on it. It's essentially a parachute, also it makes me look dashing." He said posing on the wing.

"Well I can't argue with facts. It does look warm." She said laughing.

"For that you don't get to wear my backup jacket." He said pulling out a second jacket from a box behind his seat.

"I was joking, pull me up?" She asked holding out her hand.

"Fine, but only because you're cute." Harry said pulling her up onto the wing next to him. He helped her out of her long coat and held up the jacket for her to put on.

"Oh, this is soft and warm. I will keep this." She said rubbing her cheek on the soft lamb's wool collar. "Second question, where am I going to sit?" She asked looking in the one seat in the cockpit.

"It's a magical plane, you get the jump seat." Harry said hitting a button on the instrument panel. The cockpit expanded three feet longer revealing a fold down seat that was tucked behind his seat. He flipped down the leather seat and helped her into the cockpit. He adjusted the straps for her five point harness and then got in. He started the plane and took off with barely a bump or scrape. When they were up in the air and cloaked. Harry muttered something about testing the safety harness.

"What?" she asked before she screamed as Harry flipped the invisible plane upside down. "NOT COOL!" she screamed as he rolled it and leveled off.

"What? I was testing the safety harness." Harry said with a smirk.

"Sure, it's too early for acrobatics." She said.

"It's never too early but I'll stop. How about a bit of music?" He said plugging in his phone and starting his morning playlist and Journey's Lights came on. "I love Journey." Harry said.

"Who's Journey?" She asked.

"What!?" Harry said turning around in his seat to see her laughing. "Very funny, it's bad enough you're twelve years younger than me, can we please keep the jokes to a minimum." Harry said turning around in his seat.

"I'm sorry Harry, but I know you're freaked out about being with someone that's more than a decade younger than you but you have to remember I was raised by my grandparents. My taste in music, movies, and things runs older. In a lot of ways I probably act older then you do. I'm like a 43 year old in a 23 year old's body." She said before she started singing along to the song.

"Good. It's bad enough I could have been your babysitter, I don't want to feel like I'm robbing the cradle." Harry said.

"Just relax. Now do you have any Beatles or Stones?" She asked.

"No, I hate both of those bands, but I have a phone full of 80's hair bands, 90's ault bands, 00's pop rock, and ACDC." Harry said.

"How can you hate the Beatles and the Stones? At least tell me you have Arrow Smith?" She asked.

"Only their greatest hits album." He said.

"And you call yourself old. How about Metallica? Or U2?" She asked.

"Again just the greatest hits album, and I fucking hate U2." He said.

"Well you don't have to get mean I was just asking a question." She said back.

"What? Oh U2, I get it. Wow, you are a dorky old person that tells dad jokes." He said laughing.

"Well the person I spent the most time with was my grandfather." She said laughing too.

"Tell me about him." Harry said lowering the music down a bit.

"Where do I even start?" She said.

"A name might be good, you just keep calling him grandpa." Harry said.

"Right. His name was Robert Even Lee. And before you make jokes he would be the first one to say that at least he shared a name with a great soldier and leader no matter his views or the fact that he wasn't born in the great state of Texas." Abby said laughing.

"He sounds fun." Harry said.

"He was a quiet guy, a real John Wayne type. Cowboy gunslinger you know? He was born in 1930 and lived through WWII so when the Korean war came along he was the first one to sign up. He got shot in the leg and got out in 1952, from there he became a Texas Ranger until they forced him to retire at the age of 65. That was 1995, I came to live with them in 1999. For the next 12 years I was his life. He wasn't around much with my mother. I think he always wanted a son and when my grandmother Mary almost died having my mother they never tried again. He didn't know how to take care of a little girl so he left that to my grandmother. And when she turned out to be a witch he did not take it well. It took a few years for him to understand it all and by then my mother didn't want anything to do with him. She left home as soon as she could and joined the bank as a junior cursebreaker. When my parents turned up dead I was shipped off to my grandparents and that was the first time I met them. They were good to me, took me in and took good care of me. Something I couldn't say for my real parents. I think he tried to make up for the fact that my mother ran away and never looked back so with me he tried really hard to make me feel loved and happy." She said with a sad smile.

"He sounds like a good man. I wish I would have met the man." Harry said.

"Oh you two would have gotten along great. A veteran and spy like you, you're the type of man he always pushed me towards. He'd say things like, 'Little girl, don't marry a man you can beat up, because if you can kick his ass whos going to fight for you?' or 'Abbigail, find yourself a soldier, a man willing to fight and kill for his country is a man willing to fight and kill for your family.' always little pearls of wisdom like that. In fact now that I think about it you're a lot like him. Veteran, lone wolf government agent, likes to drink and smoke, and likes speed. Another 30 years, less hair, a southern drawl and a limp and you could be the man. Oh God I fell for my grandfather." She said realizing it as she said it.

"Suddenly feeling regret? Buyer's remorse?" Harry asked half in jest.

"No, just thinking about how happy my grand dad would be right about now. Meeting you would be the highlight of his life knowing his little girl met a man just like him." She said.

"Well I don't know what to say to that." Harry said laughing. Which made her smile.

"That was the perfect thing to say. I miss that man everyday, but a part of me knows that in 45 years a boy is going to be born in Dallas Texas named Bobby, and if I can prevent him from smoking he'll be around a lot longer then he was." She said.

"Smoking killed him?" Harry asked.

"Lung cancer. He was a muggle full stop, if he was a squib he would have been fine, but there wasn't a magical cell in his body. But that's what made him special." She said.

"We're coming in over Kansas city Missouri soon, I want to land on the Kansas side of the city and we'll head more west on horseback in search of the big game. In a minute I'm going to have to do a low and slow set of turns, I'm warning you now because it's going to feel like we're going to fall out of the sky with how slow we'll be going but it's totally normal. I've done it countless times." Harry said dropping out of the clouds and she could see the small riverside city.

"Wow, would you look at that, it's so small." She said looking out the window as Harry came in low over the city.

"I'm used to seeing big cities in their infancy by now. The first time I came in over the city of London I have to admit I got a bit misty eyed." Harry said slowing way down as they reached the outskirts of the city. He banked and made a wide turn and slowed to the point of stalling as he searched for a place to put down, the problem was there was nowhere to set down. The ground was covered in a deep fresh coat of snow and he couldn't make out what was under the snow.

"Wow it does feel like we're going to fall out of the sky." She said.

"I warned you, and I hate to be the bearer of bad news twice but we're going to have to get out of the plane." Harry said undoing his seatbelt.

"I know, we're landing." She said.

"No, I mean we're getting out without landing. I've done this a few times now, and it's worked every time. This is the first time I've tried it with a passenger." Harry said pulling out two set of black and white buttons and making two sets of paired portkeys.

"WHat do you mean getting out? Getting out while were still flying!?" she asked starting to panic.

"Just relax, you're fine. All you're going to do is take a short portkey trip, and so am i. I'm just going to activate my portkey as I'm falling out of the sky." Harry said casting the bubble over the canopy before he popped the latch and slid it open.

"Harry, can you kindly tell me what you're going to do?" She asked.

"Well, there is no safe place to land. What I'm going to do is drop two portkey out of the plane. Then you're going to take one down. I'm going to fly up high. Shut off the plane, jump out, shrink it, summon it to me and take the portkey down." Harry said tossing two black buttons out and watched as they hit the snow. "That was the portkeys, now it's your turn, unbuckle your harness." Harry said calmly.

"How?" She said still freaking out.

"Here let me help you." Harry said standing up and reaching over his seat to hit the release button on her harness.

"Harry who's flying the plane?" She asked feeling light headed.

"The plane is flying the plane, it's fine I've fallen asleep in this plane as it winged its way to Hong Kong. Now I need you to stand up, come on I got you." Harry said gently as he pulled her up out of her seat until she was standing. "There you go, now I need you to hold onto this button. Good. Now let go of my arm. It's okay. Good now say the word G O." Harry said.

"Go?" She said and vanished she landed in the snow and sank up to her thighs.

Harry watched as she vanished and popped up in the snow a hundred feet below. Harry throttled up and pulled up to a few thousand feet. He leveled off, shut off the engine, stepped out onto the wing and as the plane started to nose dive he shrank it, summoned it, pocketed it, and portkeyed out of the air ending right next to Abby who promptly hugged him until his chest hurt.

"I can't believe you just jumped out of a plane!"She said.

"I've done it a few times. Now let's get our horses out and ride." Harry said patting her on the back and kissing her on the top of the head.

"Okay." She said pulling out her little horse. As Harry made a few more portkeys and tossed them on the ground.

Soon enough they were on horseback heading west using a point me spell to try to find the biggest rabbits they could find. Really Harry wanted to see if they could ride for a few hours without talking. See if they could just be together without having to entertain each other. And for two hours they rode west in knee deep snow without having to say anything. Not only that but Abby looked like she was enjoying herself. She had a smile on her face and when the wind picked up she pulled off her hat, tucked it into her bag, and pulled out a hooded scarf that looked like a leather fur hat with very long ear flaps. She pulled it on and wrapped the long scarf tails around her neck. Harry smirked.

"WHat?" She asked.

"Nothing." Harry said shaking his head.

"You mock but I'm so warm right now. This is grey wolf fur. I made this hat myself." She said pulling on her sunglasses.

"I didn't say anything." Harry said with a smirk.

"You didn't have to, I can see it on your face. I was going to make one for you but now I'm not, you can freeze. See how funny that is." She said in mock hurt.

"I am very sorry for the slight on your hat. It does look cute on you. But I think that has a lot to do with you and not the hat." Harry said smoothly.

"Nice recovery!" She said clapping.

"Thank you Ma'am." He said tipping his hat making her laugh.

They trekked on for a bit longer before they came upon a lake a few hundred feet away. Drinking at the lake were six huge deer. It was enough venison to feed the residence at the Park Place for weeks. Harry pulled out the Remington 700 Abby took a liking to last night and handed it to her. They hopped off their horses and Harry pulled his Winchester out of his saddle holster. Abby loaded the rifle and they stalked closer. When they were a hundred feet away at the end of the tree line they stopped. Harry looked at the six deer and he was shocked at the size. They were as big as a small horse and they looked healthy. Two bucks and four does. Harry cast a silencing bubble around the two of them and a muffling charm on Abby's gun.

"I want them all. Take head shots don't mess around with trying to save a trophy rack. We're here for food. How many can you get?" Harry asked switching out his Winchester rifle for his Falkor Petra .300 win mag rifle.

"With this bolt action? Two, maybe three. Those two does are easy. If I had your semi auto I can get them all before they even knew they were dead." She said dropping to a knee and using a low tree branch as a hold.

"You want to switch?" Harry asked.

"No, you try to get them all starting with the three on the left. I'll take the three on the right and we'll take the runners together." She said taking off her sunglasses.

"Okay, you count it out, you got the harder job. The count is 123 fire." Harry said crouching down and balancing his steadying arm on his knee.

"Ready? 1...2...3. Fire!" She said dropping the deer on the left. She dropped the next one and it spooked the third one. Harry for his part took his three and he was about to get the runner when it's head exploded.

"Jesus. You're too fast." Harry said.

"Well we got the meat out of the way for this trip." She said shouldering her gun and walking over the dead deer to make sure they were dead.

"I'll say, you know in 2016 the deer are way smaller." He said calling the horses.

"So, are we gutting them and skinning them here or do you want to take them into the woods to keep the wolves away?" She asked.

"Um, we just left the deer in tact last time in a cold storage box for a week." Harry said.

"Oh no, Harry you have to gut these and skin them now or the meat's going to taste like shoe leather and be just as tough. If you really want good meat you should butcher these now. In fact can't you portkey these back to the Park Place kitchen now?" she asked pulling a small hunting knife out and floating a doe up.

"We can toss them in a trunk and I can slap a sticker on it and have it in New York in a minute." Harry said as she gut and skinned the deer with a skilled eye and hand. In a minute the guts were sitting in a pile by her feet and the hide was half way off.

"Well help me gut and skin these, and we'll toss them in a trunk. Do you want to try to salvage the racks off these two bucks?" She asked pointing at the deer with the bloody knife.

"Okay, how?" Harry asked.

"What do you mean how? You're a trained killer. You have knives. Float the deer, make a cut up the belly, cut out the guts, and start separating the hide from the meat by cutting the sinew." She said getting back to work.

"Okay, I've killed a lot of people, I have no idea what the hell you just said. How about this, you look close to done with that, how about I set up next to you and you can help me through this. Starting with what knife to use?" Harry asked pulling out a leather knife roll and showing her the two dozen razor sharp knives he had.

"My God Harry, I don't even want to know. This knife is a deer skinner." She said taking out a 4 inch drop point knife.

"Is that what that one's for?" Harry said.

"Like I said, I don't want to know. Just follow my lead." She said shaking her head but there was a smile playing at the corners of her mouth.

A half hour later Harry shipped a trunk full of meat back to New York. Harry was about to vanish the mess they made but Abby waved him off. Instead she waved her wand at it and banished it to edge of the woods she then cast a spell at the hides and laid them out flat. Another few spells and the fur was gone on five of them, another spell and all the hides turned into nice thick brown leather.

"Nice." Harry said grabbing a leather hide off the ground and hitting it with a drying charm to see the nice grain pattern.

"I learned it studying tribal magic. It's an easy spell to master." She said rolling up the leather hides.

"So half of our trip is done in the first hour. This is going to be a lot easier then I thought." He said.

"Well, your shopping list is halfway done, I still need a bunch of things for the gifts I'm making. You see in my family you make at least one gift you give to your family members. You can buy gifts but you have to make something to hand out on Christmas day. It shows you put time and effort into your gift. It can be anything like jewelry, or knit sweaters, or socks. That's why I learned the tanning spell." She said rolling up the hides and putting them in her bag.

"Well what's on your list?" Harry asked.

"Leather, I need a few more hides, and fur, lots of fur. That's why I put the guts by the trees, I'm hoping to bag a few wolves or coyotes. Plus we're out here to bag a few dozen rabbits. That will help. I think two or three more deer will give me leather to spare. Plus the meat is always good." She said with a smile.

"Well let's go shopping." Harry said putting away his sniper rifle and pulling out the Ruger .22lr takedown rifle out of his bag.

Using magic and Abby's tracking skills they found a big group rabbits in the woods to the west. They made quick work of the group and they took the bag full of rabbits back to the lake where they set up Abby's tent. They sat on chairs out front of the tent and Harry built a small fire to help fight the cold as they skinned the cleaned the 16 rabbits. Most of them were huge. Harry put the bunnies in a cold trunk and Abby showed him how to cast the tanning spell soon they had a bag full of bunny fur that was so soft Harry kept touching.

"Man this is nice." He said petting the fur.

"I know, that's why I want a lot of it. I'm going to make nice warm things for everyone. The more fur we get the more hats, and scarfs, and coats I can make. It's all tailoring spells, once I have the materials I just have to work on the designs and then cast a few spells. It's how I made this hat you love so much." She said pointing to her grey hat.

"Look all joking aside, can you make me a Russian style hat made from this bunny fur?" Harry asked.

"I can, I can also color change it to be jet black to look nicer, but we need more. You said Jon Philip wanted at least three or four dozen rabbits right? Well let's go get some more rabbits." She said.

"Okay, but let's have some lunch. I'm hungry which is something I never thought I'd be after my first deer cleaning." Harry said.

"You ruptured something, I told you to be careful." She said as Harry walked into the tent to see what she had to cook.

"Yeah, you warned me, hey Abs, how about some fish and chips?" Harry asked holding up some potatoes.

"Sounds good to me." She said warming her hands over the fire after adding the guts to the pile by the woods.

"Good let's see what's in the lake." Harry said pulling out his wand and waving it at the lake. Ten huge fish lifted out of the water. "What looks good to you Abs?" He asked.

"Not the catfish you can drop all of those except that huge striped bass and that big walleye." She said pointing out two big fish.

"Good to know. Dinner will be ready in a half hour." Harry said walking into the tent with the two big fish floating next to him.

They had lunch together in a comfortable silence, and Harry was starting to really like being around her. After lunch they again hopped on horseback and tracked another big group of rabbits deeper into the woods. With the silent .22lr rifles they made quick work of the 18 in the area. Harry was bagging the last kill when Abby held up her hand. She pointed into the woods and he saw a big deer with a big rack of antlers. She put the .22 rifle in her bag and pulled out the .308 rifle. As Harry cast a silencing bubble around them to mask the sound of their approach. She stopped by a tree about a hundred feet away and braced her shoulder against a tree. She took a deep breath and held it as she waited for it to turn and as soon as it did she hit in the heart. The big deer jumped and ran. The two chased after it deeper into the woods following the blood trail. They found it in a clearing of trees. It was still breathing but it was down, Harry was going to shoot it but Abby stopped him, she walked up to the deer and patted its neck.

"Shhh, go to greener fields." She said casting the cutting charm at the base of the neck and taking the head and neck clean off at the shoulder, killing the deer instantly. "There." She said shrinking the head and putting it in a separate cold storage trunk. She was about to clean the deer when a big black bear came running up looking for dinner. Harry shouldered his Winchester and hit the bear four times in it's advancing form and it took the fourth shot to stop its advance.

"Holy shit." Harry said keeping his gun on the bear. It was big, 550lb-600lbs and close to eight feet tall when Harry lifted it up to check if it was dead.

"I'll say. Let's clean these two and get moving." Abby said.

"Can we keep the bear in tact? I think I want to stuff him for the study." Harry asked.

"Sure, we just have to be careful is all. Let me do the bear, you take the big deer." She said.

"Thank you Abby. I know the bear fur would make a nice rug but I kind of want to surprise Neville with this guy. He shot the big grizzly bear we got in Canada." Harry said.

"I get it, and this guy is perfect for stuffing. Don't worry, in the woods like this we're bound to run into another one of these guys. We'll turn the next bear we get into a nice rug." She said.

They field dressed the two big animals and then popped back to camp. When they arrived at the tent. Abby shoulder her rifle and dropped to one knee. Harry turned around and saw a pack of six good sized grey wolves picking over the mess they left by the woods. Harry copied her. They managed to get four of the wolves before they pack figured out something was going on. Harry line of sight apperated to the edge of the woods and popped the last two as they tried to run away. He collected the six wolves and popped back to camp.

"Your trap worked." Harry said.

"I see that. Good, I have a special project for these six and any others we get." She said skinning the wolves as Harry got to work on the rabbits. They had 34 of them at this point and they were all a good size. He knew there were a ton more in the woods.

"We need more rabbits. Big fat ones like this." Harry said holding up the big 20 inch rabbit.

"You do know you can breed them right? Big fat ones and by the dozens in a month. We could summon a few mating pairs and take them back with us. We'd need a place to put them but rabbits grow fast and breed like crazy. Every week you collect the big ones. The safer they feel, and the more you feed them the more rabbits you get." She said.

"Yeah, but then you have to kill them by hand. I don't think I can do that." Harry said.

"Harry you just killed at least half of those rabbits." She said.

"Headshots through a scope is one thing, but grabbing a rabbit and wringing it's neck is totally different." Harry said.

"Harry, without going into details, how many men have you killed by breaking their neck or choking them out?" She asked.

"More than a few. I used to use this knife for stealth work, but those are people. People are terrible. Especially the people I go after. If I show up at your door you did something to bring me there. Look at this little face. You could kill something this small?" Harry asked holding up a rabbit.

"I grew up on a ranch Harry. We raised everything from beef cows to rabbits. How do you think I'm so good at this? We hunted a lot but I learned how to skin cows at the age of ten. I watched it being done before that." She said letting her twang out while she was working quickly and skillfully to gut, clean, and skin the wolves.

"Why does your your accent come and go?" Harry asked.

"My accent is a product of my upbringing. Most of the time I have a rough Boston clip because I spent about two thirds of my life in that state while attending school. But that other third is a mix of my grandpa's Texas twang and my grandma's southern belle. Grandma with a lady of the great state of Georgia and she was happy to tell you so. When I was too slow to get out of the house with grandpa in the morning I ended up in a dress, white gloves, and a white straw hat. It's why I don't mind the clothes as much as Mia. I was forced into D.A.R. meetings, high tea socials, and debutante balls." She said.

"DAR?" Harry asked with a smirk.

"Daughters of the American Revolution. My grandmother could trace her lineage all the way back to Joseph Habersham. Third postmaster general of these here United States." She said with a southern belle lilt making Harry laugh.

"My God, you just slip in and out of that accent. I think it's sexy. I never dated a Southern belle." Harry said.

"You still aint. I'm no lady, I can wear a dress if the occasion calls for it and I got some table manners but I'm a Texas cowgirl through and through. Bought the only thing I hate about Texas is the music. I hate most country music and don't get me started on ranchero music. But I love a good bluegrass tune and southern rock." She said tanning the wolf pelts and banishing the mess to the pile by the woods.

"I love bluegrass! I have some good stuff on my phone." Harry said cleaning his hands and pulling out his phone. He started his playlist and The 23 String Band's Cripple Creek came out of the phone he set it aside and and when back to work.

"Good band. I saw them do a set at a bluegrass fest." She said singing along.

"Very underrated." Harry agreed going back to work on the last three rabbits as she tanned the rabbit pelts.

"It's just after three, it's going to get dark soon, do you want to go out again on another hunt using the night vision spell or call it a night?" She asked tanning the last few pelts and adding them to her bag.

"Up to you." Harry said.

"I'm good to go. Like I said, the more we get the better off we'll be, stock up on meat, leather, and fur for the winter. You're not going to want to hunt all day in January and February. The snow in this area is going to get thick and it's going to be very cold." she said.

"Let's go out on another rabbit hunt and if we get lucky with another deer or bear we'll take it." Harry said cleaning his hands and the mess off the floor of their campsite to the pile they made with a few waves of his hand.

"Sounds good to me." She said with a smile and she dropped the magazine from her rifle and topped it off. She did the same with her .308.

"It's unbelievably hot watching you do that." Harry said getting ready to go. She winked at him with a smirk.

For the third time that day they trekked into the woods using magic and skills they collected another eleven rabbits. By that point it was very dark. Even with the night vision spell it was hard to see. Harry was about to call it a night when he saw a fat rabbit drop down a hole at the base of a big tree. Harry summoned the rabbit out and ten came out all of them were fat and panicked making screeching sounds, Harry hit the group with an Avada Kedavra and they stopped moving.

"We should do that more often." Harry said.

"I wouldn't, the meats going to taste like crap. Magical hunting with the AK spell messes with the taste. There's a reason Wizards still hunt like muggles. Put those rabbits in a separate bag. We're going to have to stew those guys." She said. Harry bagged them up separately in a red bag and they were about to head back, but stopped in his tracks.

"What's that?" He asked pointing off in the woods

"That's a massive bull elk, and there are two of them." She said pointing to a second one coming out of the shadows the racks were seven foot tall and six foot wide. The elk were huge, with bodies bigger than a horse.

"Can we take them?" Harry asked.

"We can but they're going to run if you want the trophy head." She said.

"So they run, we'll tag them with tracking charms, and track them. We'll meet back at camp with our kills." Harry said.

"This is super dangerous but I do want a big elk head for the library." Abby said pulling out her .308 rifle.

"Okay let's do this." Harry said pulling out his winchester. They tracked closed to the two massive elk and Abby stopped them further back than last time.

"This is as close as we should get." She said finding a tree branch she could use as a rest.

"Okay. before we do this here's a portkey and a target button. If you make it to the campsite and I'm not back at the campsite then portkey to me, and I'll do the same." Harry said.

"Right, good thinking. This is bear country at this time after all. And you saw how big the wolves get. I wish I would have brought a handgun." She said.

"That reminds me, here. The one you used last night and here's four extra mags." Harry said. Handing her the tactical 1911 and the loaded magazines.

"Thanks." She said making sure a round was chambered, the hammer was cocked, and the safety was on before tucking the gun in her belt and pocketing the mags.

"Now remember, tag and then shoot." Harry said.

"Got it. You want me to count?" She asked.

"Yeah." He said bracing against a tree.

"Right, 1,2,3, Fire!" She called out.

They both took shots. Both elk jumped and ran in different directions. They both jumped on horses and tracked them deeper into the woods. Harry tracked his kill down in ten minutes. He was about to get off his horse when two wolves pounced on the elk from the shadows a third wolf tried to attack his horse and got broken teeth for his efforts. Harry pulled the sig226 from his shoulder rig and dropped all three wolves with a double tap to the head. He cast a light spell and held it up checking the woods around him to make sure that was all of the wolves. When he was sure he was alone he dropped off his horse and boxed up the three wolves and his elk. He shrank his horse and he was about to head back to camp when he heard nine gunshots in rapid succession from his left. He pulled out the portkey and found Abby on the ground next to the elk and a big black bear on the ground moaning. Harry shot the bear three more times in the head as he turned to check on Abby.

"You okay?" he asked crouching down next to her.

"I think so, that big ass bear charged me while I was boxing up my elk. I think he raked me across the back." She said trying to stand up.

"Just stay down for a second. I'll box this up and we'll portkey back to camp." Harry said shrinking the bear and the elk and dumping them in the trunk with his elk and three wolves. He shrank her horse and picked up the 1911 off the ground where she dropped it.

They portkeyed back to the camp and they again found a pack of three wolves picking over the bloody mess they left. Harry popped closer and shot the three wolves with double taps to the head and popped them back to the camp. He set up a quick ward and left the kill box and the three wolves by the tent and helped Abby inside. As soon as they got inside where the lights were on he could see the four large claw marks down her back starting from her right shoulder and ending at the small of her back.

"Yeah, he got you good. I'm going to get this coat and sweater off you and then I need to look at the wounds. I'm casting a numbing charm on your back right now." Harry said waving at the claw marks.

"Oh, that's much better." She said starting to loose her balance.

"Here, sit in this chair backwards before you fall over." Harry said guiding her to a chair.

He removed her coat, sweater, and her black bra. He repaired them as he set them aside. He cast an antiseptic spell on the wound and then he slowly started knitting the flesh back together trying very hard not to leave a scar. When he was done he heard her snoring. He picked her up and set her in bed. He took off her boots and her jeans. He tucked her in and left to go take care of the kills. A half hour later as he was working on the rabbits she came out of the tent in a long sleeping shirt, furry moccasins, and heavy bathrobe with a wool blanket wrapped around her. She sat on the chair by the fire and watched him work. Harry split another log with a spell and added it to the fire to throw off more heat. When he was done gutting and skinning the rabbits he cast the tanning charm and went to work on the wolves. At this point he was an old pro at this and he moved through his task in a matter of minutes. When he was all done he cleaned up the camp sites with a few spells and shrank the trunks and set them inside the tent. He then walked over to Abby, lifted her face by her chin and kissed her hard. He picked her up off the chair, carried her into the tent, closed the flap with a spell, and took her to the bedroom.

Harry woke up the next morning with Abby on his chest asleep. He smiled at her and rubbed her back.

"Ummmm, that feels nice." She said waking up and looking down at him with a smile.

"How's your back feeling this morning. You said it was tender last night." Harry asked.

"Good I think. You do good work Harry." She said flexing her arm.

"I'm just happy you're okay. It was stupid to go after those elk last night." Harry said.

"It was, but I wanted them just as bad as you did. Just like I want to get out there again and keep going. We have a better head start today and we can get a few more hours of daylight hunting in." She said rolling out of bed with a spring to her step.

"You sure you want to head out? We can call it a day and stay in." Harry said watching her walk to the bathroom naked.

"No, we want to stock up remember? We need more. We can always store it." She said turning on the shower.

"I know. I'm making breakfast." Harry said pulling on his jeans.

They had a heavy breakfast to make up for the dinner they skipped last night. They loaded up and headed out of the tent only to stop and shoot five more grey wolves eating from the pile of meat they left. They made quick work of the wolves and headed out into the woods in search of rabbit. By the time they came back to the camp for lunch they had two sacks full of 40 more rabbits, two more deer, and another big black bear. When they landed at the campsite they bagged a black bear snacking on the meat pile. They went to work on the kills they made and had lunch. They headed out again but this time the rode around the lake and headed into the woods to the northwest and they didn't portkey back to the tent until it was way past sundown. When they did they had three sacks of 65 rabbits, three elk, three deer, a black bear, and three more grey wolves.

That night they sat around the campfire talking and drinking. Harry gave her the three gun belts with revolvers to try out and she settled on a colt lighting just like Tommy. They made love under the stars on a bearskin rug close to the fire and passed out outside the tent. Harry covered them with the other bearskin and cast a warming charm on them before he too passed out.

Harry woke up when he heard something. It was a low growl. He summoned his Sig226 to him and rolled over the see what was going on. He saw something move outside the ward line he set up around the camp. He was about to cast a light spell when a huge bear ran into the wards. Harry freaked out and shot eight times but the bear just roared. Harry dropped his handgun and called the winchester to him. By this point Abby was up, she saw the bear and screamed as Harry shot the bear in the head three times. Once was enough but in his panic he kept pulling the trigger and working the action.

"I think it's dead Harry." Abby said putting her hand on his shoulder.

"Yeah, fuck that scared the shit out of me." Harry said standing up and pulling on his pants.

"What time is it?" She asked pulling the bearskin around her.

"It's four in the morning. I have to go gut and skin that bear. If I don't the blood's going to attract more predators." Harry said yawning.

"Well I'm going inside to go back to sleep. Wake me when the sun comes up." She said walking into the tent naked.

Harry pulled on the rest of his clothes and went about the task of gutting, cleaning, and skinning the huge 650-700 bear. He took his time and made sure not to cut the hide. He did it just like Abby did the other bear and when he cast the tanning charms on the hide it looked ready to be stuffed and staged. By the time he was done it was almost five and the sun was starting to come up. Harry was about to banish the guts to the pile when he saw movement from the pile.

He grabbed his Sig226 and tucked it into his waistband and grabbed his winchester rifle, he reloaded the rounds he fired and walked over to the pile keeping to the shadows of the trees. The movement was a pack of chittering grey foxes. There were four of them. He was thinking about taking them out for the soft looking fur when he saw movement in the woods. He tracked in a few hundred feet and saw a big ass elk Harry cast a tracking charm on it and hit it broadside right in the heart. It freaked out and took off deeper into the woods. Harry tracked it for a few minutes and found it on the ground mulling. Harry cast a cutting charm and separated the neck from the body but he waited before boxing it up. Sure enough he heard the grunting moaning sound that went along with a black bear. A minute later the bear came walking up. He wasn't very big but he was still a good size. Harry waited until the bear went after the elk before he put three rounds in the top of it's head. He shrank both animals and portkeyed back to the campsite and went to work on the elk and bear. By the time he was done it was almost seven. He cleaned up and made breakfast.

Abby woke up to the smell of bacon and eggs. She pulled on her robe and came out of the bedroom to find Harry cooking. She took a seat at the table and Harry set a plate in front of her with three eggs over easy, three strips of bacon, and three pieces of french toast. He set a cup of coffee with a lot of cream next to it. She was about to ask for the strawberry jelly when he set it in front of her. She smiled and smeared jelly on her french toast.

"Did you clean that bear?" She asked.

"Yes, and when I banished the waste I found a pack of grey foxes. I was going to take them out for the fur but I saw a big elk, I shot that instead and used it as bait to get another bear." Harry said sitting across from her with a plate of his own.

"How many bears is that?" She asked.

"7 I think, I've lost count on everything." He said.

"Do you want to head out this morning for a half a day?" She asked.

"No, we're out of room, as it is we're packing meat inside of meat and it's all shrunken down. I have the two bears and the elk in a trunk with dry ice. I think we'll head back to the apartment and drop off all this meat. I know Hermione made more cold storage boxes. I want to help Neville with this mine and then I want to get some Christmas shopping done. There's only what, ten days left?" He asked.

"Eleven, it's Monday the 14th I think." Abby said.

"Then I really have to get a move on." Harry said.

"I thought the apartment was your gift to all of us?" She asked.

"It was, but now I have to get something nice for everyone. Something personal." Harry said.

"Well you did help me collect all that leather and fur, I can show you how to use the tailoring charms. You can make something instead of buying it in a store." She said.

"That's not a bad idea. I might do that too. Something small like gloves or something like that. I know I want to hand out three of the bigger bear skins as blankets. That was very nice last night. Of course the company made it that much better." Harry said with a smirk.

"Yes, that was nice. I've always wanted to make love under the stars." She said with a wistful smile.

"Nice, it was a lot better than nice. That was great." Harry said.

"You know it's still early and we don't have to be anywhere for a while…" Abby said leaving the comment open. She laughed when Harry picked her up and took her back to the bedroom.


	8. Chapter 8

They landed in the lobby of Park Place right before noon. They split up with Harry taking the trunks of meat downstairs and Abby heading up to the apartment with the furs and leather. When Harry walked in he saw a big pile of furs on one side of the big library table and a lot of smaller piles on the other side. Abby with help from Tommy was sorting them out. By type, then size and color. Harry walked into his cube and gathered a few things for a later project and stopped by his closet to change into a suit, top coat, and hat. When he came back to the library ten minutes later they had it all sorted out.

"So what's our final tally?" Harry asked.

"12 white tail deer, 160 cottontail rabbits, 7 black bears, 20 grey wolves, and 6 Elk. A staggering amount for two people." Abby said.

"You guys killed everything in the forest." Tommy said.

"Hardly, the woods were full of big game. We have to take you out there Tommy, so much wildlife." Harry said.

"Well I didn't come away this weekend empty handed either. I got two of the coyotes that kept bothering us." Tommy said proudly.

"Good job son! Did you send them off the the taxidermy place?" Harry asked high fiving the boy.

"Uncle Neville took them in this morning. He also picked up the big brown bear, the three deer heads, and wolves you had stuffed. They're all in the study for now he said later you two can figure out where they go." Tommy said.

"Well I have some things to drop off too. In fact I have a bunch of things I have to do today, where's your aunt Mia?" Harry asked.

"She said she needed to make a supply run in Diagon Alley in London. She just left before you got here. Uncle Neville is in Chicago shopping for Christmas gifts." Tommy said.

"Right, I'm heading out, I'll stop off at the alley and see if I can catch up with her. See you guys later." Harry said patting Tommy on the back and planting a small kiss on Abby. Harry portkeyed to the London warehouse, then popped to the alley. Using his mage sight he picked out his sister in the crowd browsing books at a book shop. He approached her from behind and got a colt cloverleaf pressed into his junk.

"It's me." Harry said.

"You know better then to sneak up on me." She said tucking the silver gun in her small handbag.

"I wasn't trying to, but I'm naturally berry berry sneaky." Harry said in an accent.

"Is that from a really dumb movie that only you and my husband have seen?" She asked.

"Mr. Deeds, it's one of Adam Sandler's less dumb movies. Nevermind, the kid said you'd be here. I need your help, or at least some guidance on something." Harry said.

"Okay, what do you need?" She asked.

"I have a few question about how the DoM guns work, could you show me how to do the charms and enchantments. I want to make a few." Harry said tossing a silencing bubble around them.

"Sure, it's not too complicated. It's basic enhancements using basic rune carving. Do you really want to learn or dabble?" She asked moving through the stacks of books.

"I would like to learn if you'll teach me? We have so much time now that I want to try learning, but I want to make Abby an Operative's gun, how long will it take to enchant the gun? Also I want to make about a dozen more to store in the apartment as backup guns." Harry said.

"The first one is going to take you maybe an hour tops, with your power level and steady hands, carving runes will be easy for you. Plus half the magic of an operative gun is in the ammo. The gun just has an enchanted magazine to hold 10x the amount of rounds and a whisper enchantment on the slide, frame, and barrel. The true power of the gun comes from the enchanted conjured brass, the enchantments lock the brass in its form when the bullet head and the casing are together, when the bullet head separates from the casing the enchantment is broken and the two pieces of enchanted brass vanish. It take about a second for that to happen, by that point the bullet head has done it's job making a big hole in someone. The rounds are hard to make, it's why I'm not thrilled to start up a production line for it. It took a lot of hand crafted stamping and engraving machines that all need to be re-built by me because I'm the only one with a working knowledge of it all. But the guns are simple. In fact, I've got time right now. My potion order won't be ready for at least an hour. Let's get you a set of tools and a few books. We'll hire out a private dining room at the Cauldron and I'll show you how to make a gun." She said with a smile.

"Potion?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, I'm testing the skill level of a potential hire for the clinic. Half of Doc Kane's day is spent building up a potions surplus. We have over a hundred workers plus he takes walk ins off the streets he needs an assistant to handle the office and a potions brewer to handle the potions stock. There's a girl that runs a small failing potions store here in the alley. No one wants to buy from her because she's a woman and a muggle born. The thing is, that muggle born woman is going to find a way to brew a bug repellent potion thats safe for magical plants using cheap ingredients, her potions patent gets stolen by a pureblood wizard and he gets the credit for it. I'm trying to see if the 24 year old in that little shop is at the level now, or if it takes loosing her shop to spark her talents. I ordered a few hard to brew potions, I want to test them to back track her ingredient list, and figure out if she's a genius yet." Hermione said leading him out of the bookstore and down a side alley into a shop.

"Can't you just interview her like you did with most of the people we hired?" Harry asked as Hermione walked through the store picking up things off of shelves and handing them to him.

"I could interview her but I need to know her skill level. Arms out." she said before she started staking things in his arms. A brown leather tool roll, a small wooden tool box with a brass handle and locks, a box of small engraving tools, a box of bigger engraving tools, a case of small glass jars filled with glowing white powder, a case of little bottles full of glowing red oily liquid, a case of small brass bars, a magnifying glass on a small wood and brass tripod, a wood box with a small gold melting ladle with a pour spout, and a small flat gold box about the size of a pill box. "We have enough to get you started. Lets face it if I got you a stack of books you'd never open them, you're a hands on learner." She said said leading him to the counter when an old man was sitting.

"I'm both insulted and yet I can't argue with your logic." Harry said setting the things on the counter.

"A full advanced kit? Did you lose yours?" The old man asked ringing it all up.

"No, my brother here is going to learn the art of enchantments." Hermione said.

"Really? No books?" He asked pointing to the shelf.

"I'm not a book kind of guy. I'm sure with my sister's help I'll get the hang of it." Harry said.

"Well good luck to you. Your total is 11 galleons. Would you like to assemble your kit before you leave?" He asked.

"Yes, pay the man Harry." Hermione said.

She unrolled the leather tool roll and filled it with most of the things she bought with a practised ease. She opened the small wood tool box and put the two cases of jars and the small brass bars in the bottom and set the leather roll on top, she closed the brass latches and handed it to Harry who handed the old man eleven gold coins. She was about to walk out when she stopped and grabbed a heavy leather apron, and a small leather bound book and walked back to the counter.

"How much?" She asked.

"four sickles." He said. Hermione handed him the coins and gave Harry the apron and book.

"What's this?" Harry asked.

"It's a protective apron and a copy book. Until you learn what each rune means and how a string works it's the best way to practice the craft." She said leading him out of the shop. She ordered a private room at the coundron, a bucket of butterbeers, and a meat pie. They sat down and Hermione took out her CZ 75b from her shoulder rig and set it on the table.

"Harry, I need you to pay very close attention to this. There are two kinds of enchantments. Powered, and unpowered. The enchantments on your coat that keep you warm for instance are unpowered. In fact most enchantments on soft things like cloth are unpowered. Instead the enchantments have a power rune that siphons very small bits of magic off the wearer to power themselves. Powered enchantments need to be engraved and the engravings need to be filled with a mixture of metal with a lot of magical properties, diamond dust, and dragon's blood. Every enchantment works like this. After the rune string is engraved and filled you have to power the runes by pouring a bit of magic into the rune until it glows. Once the rune glows the magic seeps into the metal and leaves just the engraving behind. On Operative guns like yours we go back and fill in the engraving to cover our work. This gun is my personal weapon. Because there was little chance of it falling into a muggle's hands I left the engravings unfilled. Also my engravings are very smoothing and I'm proud of my work so I kept them. This is good because I also added a few things to my gun that are not a part of the normal Operative's gun." She said showing off her gun. Harry saw the intricately engraved rune strings on the gun and he had to admit his sister's work was flawless.

"Nice, but they are big and out there, is there a way to hide the runs in an engraving?" Harry asked.

"Sure, in fact that might help you get started. Do you have a gun with engravings?" She asked.

"My colt Cloverleaf." Harry said pulling out the gun from his coat pocket.

"Good this will work, what we'll do is cast an expansion charm on the gun and make it bigger." She said.

"How big?"

"The bigger the better. Make it cartoon big." She said.

"Okay," Harry set the small revolver on the table and cat the enlargement spell on it making the gun huge. A pocket gun that was 6x3 inches became a 36x18 inch gun Harry picked it up and laughed at the size and weight. "Now what?" Harry asked.

"Roll it over so it's sitting handle up so you can get to the underside of the barrel. Then we'll use the copy book to make copies of all the runes on my gun. Later I'll give you a set of runes for some other useful things. But for now let's get started on the whisper enchantment" She said.

An hour later and Harry carefully boiled the red brass, diamond dust, and dragon's blood in the gold ladle over the small gold box which housed a magical fire. When the mixture began to shift colors from a shiny light red to a dark red Hermione tapped him on the shoulder and Harry carefully took it off the fire. He held it over the small engraving of the rune string and poured it onto the engraving. He had more than he needed so he vanished the rest and set the ladle aside. He then pulled out his wand and rested the tip against the red filled engraving and pushed raw magic into the rune string. It glowed and slowly it got brighter until it turned from red to white. It flashed and sank down into the metal. When the glow died down Hermione case a few spells at the rune string and nodded.

"Very good Harry! Shrink it and test it." She said.

Harry dropped the enlargement charm and the gun shrank down to it's normal pocket size. Harry turned the gun over and looked at the engraving and he could barely make out the small pin holes that made up the rune string inside the dark part of the scroll pattern. He conjured a thick wood target on the wall and shot. The gun made a click sound as the hammer struck the back of the frame but no other sound came out. But the gun did go off, the room was full of black powder smoke and there was a hole in the wood target. Harry cleared the air with a spell and pulled his sister out of the chair and hugged her.

"I love you so much! Thank you for teaching me." Harry said.

"I didn't do shit, I showed you a spell to copy runes and a spell to stamp them on metal. You carved the runes, very well I might add, and you boiled the filler and poured it without spilling it or having it pop and splash you. I'm proud of you Harry, that takes student's weeks to master. My first enchantment took three weeks. I gave you the shortcut spells but your engraving work was spot on. You know Harry, those engraving tools can be used as regular engraving tools. You said you were going to have Smith engrave the gun and then you were going to add the enchantments. You could do both yourself. Come up with a scroll work pattern, use the spell to stamp it on the metal, carve it out yourself, then add the rune string. And with a gun like a 1911 you can take it apart and work on each piece." She said with a smirk.

"And with the enlargement charm and my smelting kit I can fill in the engravings with gold or red brass and cover my enchantment runes." Harry said scratching his chin.

"It get's even easier if you're copying a pattern. You said you were going to give Tommy an engraved 1911 right? Copy the pattern and work off of it. Also those tools will carve into anything. Like wood, or ivory, or bone." She said with a knowing grin.

"Thank you sister, I think I'll spend some time at the 'office' working on something. When you get back to the apartment tell Tommy I'm working on a gift for Abby. I think I'll stay here for a while working." Harry said.

"Harry it's almost seven here in London, why don't you take this back to Park Place and use an empty apartment in the building to set up your work space?" She asked.

"You know, without you, I'd be screwed right? We'd all be screwed. Don't ever doubt you're the most valuable member of this family." Harry said kissing her on the top of the head.

"Oh, I know. But the fact that you're trying this hard to learn new skills and magic is a good sign. We might make a Researcher out of you yet." She said with a smile.

"I doubt it, too much book learnin. But let me pack up my kit and I'll walk with you to the potions store and portkey back home with you." Harry said putting away his kit and taking off his leather apron. He packed it all back in his toolbox and shrank that to fit in his pocket.

Harry walked around with Hermione in the alley for an hour before he portkeyed back to Park Place. He took the keys to apartment 201 and set up his engraving kit on the kitchen table. That afternoon he worked on Abby's gun and got most of the engraving done. He started with the pattern from the Colt Ace but soon he was making his own choices. The fact that he could undo the engraving if he didn't like it gave Harry confidence in his budding tool work. But most of his confidence came from working with a huge slab of metal, making big furniture sized engravings, and then shrinking it back down to the 1911 slide helped put things in perspective. Small glaring mistakes on the expanded slide became miniscule little tool marks.

When he called it a night at seven he had the slide, and most of the frame done. Harry liked his work so much he went searching through the trunks for more guns. He found a Colt 1911 in 9mm for Tommy, a CZ 75b for his sister and a pair of Sig Sauer X-Fives for himself and Neville. He figured he had ten days to finish them all and if he put in a good six hours a day he'd be done in six days. He spent every minute he could working on it. But between mining for gold with Neville, taking Tommy on a day long hunt in Kansas to make up for the trip he missed, and making a few supply runs to africa for some gemstones and ivory at what was comically low prices. It took him to the day before Christmas eve to finish them all and box them up but he was very happy with his work.

The week leading up to Christmas was super busy for everyone. They all staked out a room and they spent most of their time in it. Tommy and Hermione spent a lot of time together in the library wrapping gifts and making things things. Abby took over the men's study to work on her projects and kept the door lock. Neville, like Harry spent a lot of time leading up to the holiday working to keep up with the company and the gold mining business. But when he was home he took the first bedroom on the left and set up a table to wrap gifts. The major break came in the form of them all coming together to decorate the tree the boys found in the woods in Canada.

The tree was a big fourteen foot pine. The boys up rooted it and repotted it in a huge four foot clay pot they made. Hermione did a quick expansion on the pot to make it 16 foot wide and and twenty foot deep. They filled it with topsoil and repotted the tree. They shrank the pot back down and stuck it in the living room in the corner next to the fireplace. Hermione showed Tommy how to make glass bulbs and soon the tree was full, they added conjured strings of christmas lights and the tree glowed bright. Everyone left and started stacking gifts under the tree. The pile would keep growing as the days ticked down to Christmas.

Harry also handed out bonuses to all of the workers that week. If you made $5 a day you got a $400 bonus in the form of a small red bag of gold $20 coins. If you made $10 a day you got $750 in gold coins and a nickel plated Colt Cloverleaf revolver with gold engravings with the B&S logo on the ivory handle. To put that into perspective the average yearly pay for a dock worker was $380 and the average pay for a skilled carpenter was $850 a year. Hermione yelled at him that he was messing with the economy by overpaying the workers so much but she did it with a soft smile on her face. She saw how happy the workers were when they got their little red bag of gold coins.

Harry also set up a big office party. He closed down the company early on Friday the 23rd of December, and set up tables in the New York wearhouse. He had the kitchen staff of Park Place make a huge meal of venison, rabbit, and prime rib. He invited all of the workers and their families to the party.

While they were all eating dinner Harry and Abby took a head count of the kids and put the right number of pre-wrapped toys into a big red enchanted bag. The day before Harry had gone to a toy store and bought three dozen of each gift with Abby's help. The gifts that didn't go to kids at the party would be dropped of at a local orphanage along with twenty $50 gold coins. The same amount dropped off at orphanages in every major city they had a warehouse.

They then switched off with Neville and Hermione half way through dinner and while Harry and Abby ate Neville and Hermione got into Santa and Mrs. Claus costumes. Hermione argued that the red suit and white beard was not a thing until the 1930 when Coca cola made the advertising for the man in the red suit but Harry didn't care, the kids deserved a good Christmas. After dinner Hermione came out and sat in a big chair in the corner with the children all gathered around her to read Twas the Night Before Christmas. When she was done reading Neville came out ho ho hoing.

He sat in the chair and with Hermione's help he handed out gifts to all the kids. For the small kids under 5 they got stuffed animals. For the older kids 6-9 the girls got dolls and the boys got pop guns. For the 10-13 year olds, the boys got gold pocket knives and the girls got small gold lockets with watches inside. Everyone else got a gold $20 coin. All together the party and the donations to charity coast Harry just over ten thousand dollars but they had plenty of money to spare thanks to the shipping company, Abby's estimate of $20,000 a day in profits was way low. They averaged $27,000 a day. In the first five weeks they made over $975,000. They also drained another gold and silver mine and ended up with 137 gold bars and 283 silver bars worth $2,502,000. Harry stacked the bars in the vault next to the pile of 850 gold bars they had and shut the door. They would keep mining for gold when they had a chance but they would hold onto it from now on and slowly sell it off when the market boomed in the back half of the 1900's or if they really needed it for an emergency.

On Christmas morning Harry was the first one up. He wanted to surprise Tommy with a huge stack of gifts under the tree. Harry was sitting on the couch drinking a cup of coffee when Tommy rushed into the room. He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw the mound of gifts that was twice the size of the pile that was there last night. He then saw his dad with a huge grin on his face as he recorded Tommy's reaction on his phone.

"Now that was the reaction I was hoping for." Harry said with a big grin.

"Is all that for me?" Tommy asked looking shocked.

"A lot of it is. I did buy your aunts and uncle stuff. But a big chunk of it is yours. But we have to wait until the rest of the house gets up to open gifts." Harry said.

"Do we have to?" Tommy asked looking back and forth between the pile and Harry.

"Yes, but until then I wanted to give you this." Harry said holding out a small wooden box with a red bow.

"What is it?" Tommy asked taking the box and sitting next to Harry on the couch, Max his ever present dog sat next to him and looked too.

"Open it and see." Harry said with a smile.

Tommy untied the ribbon and open the box. Inside was a silver signet ring with a wolf's head and the name STEEL under it. Tommy took the ring out of the box and held it up.

"What does this mean?" He asked.

"It means, that if you want to, you can sign this document and become my legal son. From now on you'll be Thomas Steel. First son of the house of Steel. Cool title don't you think?" Harry said holding a legal document and a pen.

"You really mean it? What if Abby has a son? Wont he be your first son?" Tommy asked.

"No, he didn't come first did he? You did. From the day I met you my life has been forever changed for the better. You've made me a better person Tommy, warmer and kinder. That was your doing, and trust me, if Abby has my kids they won't be the last even if we can't have anymore. We'll adopt. Look how the first one turned out. So do you want into this crazy family or what?" Harry asked.

"I do," Tommy said signing his name like his aunt Mia taught him. The document flashed and vanished and Tommy hugged Harry as hard as his little arms could. "I love you dad." He said, his voice cracking with emotion.

"I love you too son." Harry said rubbing his back as he got glassy eyed too. Hermione, Neville, and Abby came into the room all looking emotional as well. Hermione was crying. She hugged the boy hard.

"I'm so happy right now!" Hermione said. Harry stood up and made coffee for Abby and Neville, and tea for Hermione at the drinks cart. Abby hugged him from behind as he worked.

"We'll adopt is right. I want to fill this place with kids." She said.

"Good, so do i. Tommy opened my eyes to a lot. I never wanted to be a father and now I can't imagine not being a father." Harry said.

"Well you're going to be a father again in about nine months. I'm pregnant." She said with a smile.

"Really?! When did you find out?" Harry asked holding her tight.

"I cast the charms everyday. I got a positive yesterday but it was weak. Today it was strong. We're having twins like Hermione and Neville. A boy and a girl!" Abby said.

"That's great!" Harry said. "Hey Tommy! You're going to have a brother and sister!" Harry called out to the boy.

"Really?!" He asked excitedly coming over to hug Abby.

"Yes, now we made poor Tommy wait long enough Let's open some gifts and have some breakfast." Abby said leading both men to the couch. She sat with Harry on the couch next to Hermione and Neville. She pointed Tommy to the tree. "The youngest person that can read the names gets to hand out gifts. That's you." She said.

"Okay." Tommy said excitedly as he rushed into the big pile and started handing things out to people. When everyone had a big box they opened them. They kept this up until the room was full of paper.

Hermione got a stack of books from everyone. She got a full length black fur coat, with a grey Russian style hat and a muff from Abby and a bunch of old spell books. A huge ruby and diamond necklace from Neville, along with an antique potion's kit full of shiny brass and wood tools and hand blown glassware, and a stack of old potions books. Tommy gave her a Charm bracelet with a book charm and an apple charm, and a signed 1880 addition of Hogwarts a History. Harry gave her the CZ 75b he engraved and enchanted. The engravings were filled with gold and the grips were carved ivory with a red and gold Gryffindor house crest made of gold and ruby dust. It came with three enchanted 120 magazines in a nice wood box. He also gave her a signed first printings of all of Jules Verne's works and tied to the stack of books was a letter from the author himself saying he was looking forward to meeting his biggest fan in a month for dinner.

"You got me a dinner with Jules Verne?!" She screeched.

"It took a bit of coin but for the right price people are very willing to sit down and talk to you. Of course when you drop a 25lb gold bar on a table people tend to listen to what you have to say. You will be dining with the man and his wife at Le Grand Vefour on February the 1st. The invitation is for you and Neville and up to four guests." Harry said with a smirk.

"You're the best, Tommy we have a lot of catching up to do. We have to read all of these. By February." Hermione said looking deliriously happy.

Neville got a brown leather knee length coat with a rabbit fur lining and collar, leather gloves, and a brown Russian style fur hat from Abby. He got a Winchester 1885 high wall rifle in .45-90 from Tommy along with a leather bandolier of 100 very big red brass bullets. The gun was nothing special, just meat and potatoes, and made to kill something very big.

"It's the biggest gun Sam said he could get, and it's charmed to take a bigger bullet. Abby helped me make the bandolier, and Aunt Mia helped me make the rounds. They are doubly powerful and the bullet nose is magical! I got one for me too and dad's is coming. Aunt Mia is going to enchant mine so it's easier to shoot. As it is now it hurt my shoulder, threw me off my feet, and hurt my ears even though I tested it in the magic shooting room! I want to go on Safari with it!" Tommy said excitedly.

"I love it kid, and you're damn right we're going on Safari. We're going to hunt lions and tigers and rhinos!" Neville said hugging the boy.

Neville also got a pocket watch from his wife that was like Harry's watch with hands for every member of the family, but unlike Harry's watch this one expanded to an to an eight inch disk with a map of the world and it showed you where everyone was and you could zoom in and track their location to a few feet. It was an 'in case one of them got kidnaped' item. When Harry got one too the intent behind the gift was clear. If something happened to one of them the two man could track them down and rescue them. Harry took his watch and the two men shared a look and a nod. They would burn the world to keep their family safe.

Harry gave him the Sig Sauer P226 X-Five. The gun was covered in bear engravings filled with gold and dark blue sapphire dust. For the grips Harry used bear femur bone and carved the House Blackwell crest into the white bone. The crest was similar to House Steel but instead of a wolf head there was a bear head he filled it in with sapphire dust and the Blackwell name in gold. The gun came with three 190 round magazines. In the second box was a small black bear. He took it out and expanded it and it grew to the eight foot tall 750lb black bear that attacked the camp that night while they were sleeping.

"I see your seven and a half foot tall brown bear and raise you an eight foot black bear." Harry said laughing.

"No shit, it's huge. The corners of our study are getting crowded." Neville said laughing.

There was also an invitation to dinner with John D. Rockefeller to discuss shipping contracts. Neville looked like he was going to tear up when he read the note.

"Standard Oil Harry? We're going to be billionaires if we can say we're the primary shipping company for Standard fucking Oil." Neville said hugging him.

"I know, it's a gift for the whole family, I figured we can offer to do a few shipments for free to prove our value and then boom, we're making cash hand over fist." Harry said with a grin.

"I love you brother." Neville said.

"I love you too." Harry said patting him on the back.

Abby got books and enchanting tools from Hermione. A Winchester Rifle in .45-70 with a carved wood stock and gold engravings from Neville. A Colt Lighting with a shorter barrel, gold engravings, and ivory handles like Tommy's gun from Tommy. He also gave her a charm bracelet with a mom charm on it. That made her tear up and hug the boy hard. From that point he called her mom and she called him son. Harry gave her a the Wilson Combat 1911 he started with, the gun had scroll engravings but mixed in the scroll work were personal things like the state of Texas on the top of the slide and miss teen Texas 2011 in a banner under it. On the side of the slide was "Lone Star Lady" in a banner. All of the engravings were filled with blue sapphire and red ruby dust. The grips were ivory with a gold Texas Ranger star. It came with three 90 round mags also engraved with long horn bulls. There was also a black leather Operative's shoulder rig. Taped to the box was a letter and as she read it her mouth kept getting wider. By the end she looked to Harry and then to Hermione and then blinked. She handed the letter to Hermione and practically tackled Harry and kissed him hard enough to make them both dizy. It did not help matters when Hermione hugged him too.

"What's going on? What'd he do this time?" Neville asked taking the letter. "Who's Susan B. Anthony?" He asked.

"Oh my God? Really Neville?" Hermione asked looking shocked.

"Susan B Anthony is the reason Hermione and I are not treated like chattel in the future. She is the woman's movement, and we're hosting her at Delmonico's in two weeks! We get to meet one of the most important women in the history of the world!" Abby said.

"Yes, apparently she's trying to publish a book set about the women's movement and I offered her warehouse space for free, I also offered her a very large donation to go towards the publishing of that book set. She was very shocked by my interest in her work and also that I was setting this up as a gift to my girl and sister. The fact that my sister runs our shipping company was very interesting to her. The gold helped as well. I figured we could invite all of the women that work for the company to meet her, or you can keep it a private evening with just us, it's up to you two. Also, I wanted to do this before I knocked you up but, Will you, Abigail Gibson marry me?" Harry asked falling off the couch and extending a ring box to her with a platinum ring with a good sized square cut diamond flanked by two emeralds.

"Yes!" She said taking the ring.

"I know it's not big, I got a smaller one because you do a lot of work with your hands, so to make up for it I got you this." Harry said handing her a flat wood box. Inside was a huge 40ct square cut emerald on a necklace made of 100 1ct square cut diamonds and platinum.

"Holy Shit!" She said looking at the huge stone.

"Yeah, I did some trading to get my hands on that thing. It was sitting in a case in Nigeria, I had to trade a bag of raw loose sapphires to get it but when the jeweler saw it he almost passed out." Harry said with a grin.

"I love it, I love you too but you know… big ass emerald." She said laughing.

Harry got an enchantment copy book full of useful enchantments, a set of very small jeweler's engraving tools, and more enchanting supplies from Hermione. He got a knee length black leather coat with black fur lining and collar, black leather gloves, and a black Russian style fur hat from Abby, as well as a note telling him his present was waiting back in their room with a smiley face. From Tommy he got a pair of handmade Holland and Holland double barrel shotguns in a leather wrapped case, and a pocket watch with Dad on the front. From his brother he got a big toy ship. It was really nice. About 20 inches long, 7 inches wide, and about 6 inches tall from the bottom of the boat to the top of the dark green steam pipe. It was made of a dark red wood with a green water line and lighter teak decking. On the steam green pipe he saw the gold B&S logo. On the back corner was the words The Steel Lady.

"Nice ship Nev. it must have cost you a pretty penny." Harry said looking at the detail. He could see furniture inside the yacht and even the American flag looked real, in fact it all looked real, like when he would look at his shrunken cars… "This isn't a real ship is it?" Harry asked looking at his smirking brother and sister.

"It's real, 80 foot long 30 foot wide, magical boiler, twin screws, and it has lighting charms all over it. It has six state rooms, a big kitchen, living room, and the whole deck is useable space. There are shrunken tables and folding chairs in the cabin. It's sleek and fast 60 knots, whatever the hell that means." Neville said proud as can be.

"Where the hell did you get this thing from? There's no way you did all this work. This is hundreds of hours of enchantments and charms work." Harry said.

"You're not the only one that can hire goblins you know. Apparently they have a whole fleet of yachts and ships. As you know a portkey's max range is only about 150-200 miles and you have to be powerful to cast that, well to cut down on trip times and hiring out portkeys from the ministry to travel to all of their offices around the world they have a fleet of boats. This was one they were working on when I asked about buying a ship. All that cost 1,000 Galleons." Neville said.

"This huge ship was only $25,000? A bargain if I ever saw one. Good work Nev. Well we have a good place to set up a base camp for our safari. We'll set this in a river or lake and portkey to and from the ship.

Of all of them Tommy made out like a bandit. Hermione gave him a school trunk full of books, muggle and magical, potion equipment, and an enchanter's tool kit like the one she had Harry buy. She also gave him a wood trunk with two fencing jackets, two masks, two foils, two sabers, and two epees. Tommy was excited but so was everyone else.

"I can't wait to get started." Tommy said grabbing a saber from the trunk.

"We might turn one of the bedrooms into a fencing room." Harry said with a smirk.

Neville got him a really nice safari type writing desk. It looked like a wood briefcase but set it on the ground and with the tap of a wand it became a 3x6 foot desk with drawers to store things, a gold pen set, and a nice padded leather folding chair. He also gave him a pair of sword and gun racks for his bedroom walls.

"And to start your collection." Neville said handing him a long box. In the box was a Revolutionary war cavalry saber and a Brown Bess flintlock musket. Both the sword and musket had seen some combat, they looked beat up and used but that made them cooler. At some point in history these were used in a war.

"Awesome." Tommy said taking the musket and powder horn on a leather cord out of the box.

Abby gout him a leather and fur bomber jacket like Harry's, a long brown leather and wolf fur hunting coat, leather gloves, and a brown leather hat with long tails like her hat. She also made his a brown leather and wolf fur messenger style shooting bag to hold ammo or a canteen on a hunt and the leather strap doubled as a bandoleer. She also gave him a black bear skin rug made from the bear that almost killed her

But by far Harry got him the most. Starting with the Colt Ace 1911 in a nice display box. He made three extra magazines for the gun and buffed up the shine on it until it was gleaming. Next was another box with the Colt 1911 in 9mm. Harry copied some of the scroll work from the Ace but he added a few of the Wolf head engravings from his signet ring and his personal Sig Sauer 226 X-Five. He filled the engravings gold and sapphire dust. The grips were ivory with gold House Steel wolf's head and STEEL in a banner under it. In the wolf's eye Harry put ruby dust to the give the eye a red glow. He added all the Operative charms for whisper quiet operation and 90 round magazines, but he also added a rune activated recoil reduction charm off Hermione's gun. The 9mm 1911 shot like a .22lr Colt Ace. he gave the kid four magazines with the gun and an ammo box filled with all the super cheap bulk NATO 9mm from the trunk. There was about a thousand rounds in the box.

"Super cool! I love the wolf eyes." Tommy said.

"You're first semi-auto handgun. You're about 15 years ahead of the times now." Neville said.

"It has a 90 round magazine, but I also added a few regular 9 round mags so you can practice changing magazines. The gun also has a recoil enchantment on it so you can practice with full recoil and carry it with light until you get good with the kick of a 9mm." Harry said.

"Awesome!" Tommy said.

Harry also gave him the Winchester rifle Sam was working on that was cut shorter and fired .38lc. The rifle, like most things to come out of Sam's workshop, was nickel plated and covered in engravings. Harry requested coyotes. His son's favorite enemy. To go with the rifle was a sling bandoleer to hold an extra 75 rounds of .38lc. He also gave him two knives, I big ten inch bowie knife. And a smaller four inch skinning knife. Both had enchantments of sharpness and strength and both had leather sheaths that attached to his gun belt or his shooting bag. Harry also got him a 3x5 foot black pirate flag with the skull and crossed swords. Wrapped in the flag was a flintlock pistol and a cutlass that looked like Jack sparrows.

"Jack Sparrow's sword and gun!?" Tommy asked.

"It took a bit of junk shop searching to find that sword. Then I added the skull and crossbones. But the best gift is in the last big box." Harry said with a smirk he shared with Abby.

Tommy tore off the paper and opened the box and found a brown canvas dufflebag? He grabbed the bag and set it on the floor. As he looked at it, things started to click for him, the bag looked beat up. The straps looked worn. There were three belt style closures and when he undid them he knew what he was looking at. He grabbed the strap and flung open the big knife roll style bag and it was all there. When Neville saw it he lost his shit.

"Is that Rick O'Connell's Bag from the Mummy!?" Neville asked practically diving to the ground to get a better look at the bag and it's contents. "I want one. I want one so bad." Neville said.

"Funny you should say that." Harry said expanding a second bag from his pocket and handing it to Neville.

"Fucking love you." Neville said unrolling his bag.

"I made one for each of us, you think I'm going to be left out of the fun?" Harry said expanding his bag and unrolling it on the floor next to them.

"It's all here." Tommy said pulling one of the Chamelot-Delvigne revolvers from it's spot and checking it over by working the action. "It's perfect." Tommy said looking at the beat up finish on the gun.

"My god you even have sticks of dynamite in the bag!" Neville said grabbing the red stick out and looking at the long cannon fuse.

"Well it's not all there, I had to make some substitutions. But it's really close. We all have a pair of revolvers but I had Sam drill out the bore and cylinder, and charm them to take .44S&W because we have crates of it and it packs a bigger punch. Tommy's revolvers have the rune activated recoil enchantment. You both have Winchester 1897 takedown pump action shotguns, but I only had two and they're not going to be around for a decade so I have a Winchester Model 12 takedown pump gun. We all have a 1911 but none of them are real Colt first run 1911s. However they are beat up and look right thanks to a bit of work on Sam's part. Tommy's is a Kimber in 9mm. You have a Springfield Armory Range Officer, and I have a Remington R1. However aside from that we're authentic. Two bandoliers of shotgun shells, a butterfly knife, boxes of ammo, three sticks of dynamite, and I even transfigure some metal into that weird hook knife. But we're missing something. Leather." Harry said tossing them both brown leather shoulder rigs.

"The. Best. Gift. Ever!" Tommy said pulling on the shoulder rig.

"I've been planing this gift since before December. When Tommy saw the Mummy and he was so into the movie I knew I had to make the bag. I searched the gun trunk and prayed I had a Winchester pump takedown, when I found two I was going to make one for Neville but then I saw the Model 12 and I said screw it we'll all get one. Abby helped me by making the bag and all the leather work of course." Harry said pulling on his shoulder rig and Leather cuff before adding his guns. He stood next to the other two and looked at Abby. "How do we look? Like tomb raiders?" He asked.

"You boys look so cute." Abby said.

"Two 35 year olds and a 10 year old and I can't tell you which is which." Hermione said with a smile.

"Come on boys, let's go shoots stuff and miss as we try to double gun like an action hero." Harry said rolling his bag up and slinging it over his shoulder.

"Hey before you guys start playing with your toys make breakfast." Hermione said.

"Why? The kitchen is going to open in an hour." Harry said.

"You made the kitchen staff work on Christmas?" She asked looking shocked.

"No, they wanted to work, Jon Philip said the kitchen will work on all holidays but for a shorter time. Instead of 6am-9pm they are working 8am-6pm for double pay and they have the day off tomorrow. The same for Easter, Thanksgiving, the 4th of July, Mother's day, and Father's day. Oh and Bastille day, whenever that is." Harry said walking out the door.

"You know, half the time he acts like he's five, and half the time he's two steps ahead of me being a better adult then I am." Hermione said.

"He's an adult most of the time but he hates to show it. I have to go shoot something, I'll be back." Abby said grabbing her guns and walking out of the room.

"Well I wanna come too." She said grabbing her gun box and walking out.

For the rest of the morning they played with their toys and that afternoon the boys dressed in brown pants, their brown riding boots, white shirts, their gun rigs and leather cuffs. They sat on the couch and watched the Mummy like they never saw it before. Hermione sat in the wing back chair and rolled her eyes at them as they cheered on the movie.

"How can you boys watch that movie again? You've seen it like three times already this month." She said.

"It's the perfect movie Mia, I has everything. Action, adventure, humor, scares, and gunfights, it even has love." Harry said.

"Yeah what he said." Neville said nodding.

After the movie they sat down to dinner, and after dinner they changed into warm pjs, and watched three christmas movies under warm blankets with Egg nog. They started with 1951 Christmas Carol with Alastair Sim thanks to Hermione's hard drive. After that they watched Die Hard because it was Harry and Neville's yearly tradition. It took some explaining to get Tommy caught up with the 80's tech, lingo, and style of dress but by the mid way mark he was locked in like his dad and uncle. They finished with White Christmas from Abby's hard drive. By the end only Harry and Tommy were awake to see the end. When the movie ended both men wiped their eyes and pretend the movie didn't get to them. Harry got Neville up, and he took his wife out of the room with a "Merry Christmas guys."

Harry helped Tommy get his stuff together and took it to his room. He tucked the boy in and sat on the side of the bed. Tommy looked at the silver ring on his right ring finger.

"I can't stop looking at it." Tommy said.

"Well it's not going to go away. I love you kid, and I'll alway will. Just like you're my boy, and you'll always be my boy. Now how do you feel about Abby being your mom?" Harry asked.

"I like it. She's nice and always good to me." Tommy said with a smile.

"Good, I think in a few weeks we're going to head out on a safari. We have a few things to do but then we're free to do as we like. Now I'm not sure what Rhino and elephant taste like, but we're going to find out. The same for lion, and tiger, and water buffalo. Hell I think we'll even take a zebra or two. What do you think?" Harry asked with a grin.

"Sounds like good eatin dad. Real good. Also a stuffed lion might be what this room's missing." Tommy said.

"Good. Now get some sleep, we're going to spend some time on the boat tomorrow. I want to expanded it and see how she floats, maybe we can shop for some safari gear? I always wanted a pith helmet." Harry said.

"I can't wait. It's going to be great." Tommy said.

"It's going to be great. Now get some sleep." Harry said patting the boy on the shoulder as he stood up and saw Abby in the doorway of the room.

"Good night Tommy." Abby said.

"Good night mom." Tommy said rolling over in bed to sleep on his side. Harry took Abby's hand and lead her to their room.

"I love the way me calls me mom. It makes me happy." She said.

"In nine months we're going to have two more. Oh god, you're due in nine months, and my sister is due in eight and a half. There are going to be four small infants in this house at the same time. We're fucked." Harry said as the reality of the situation hit him.

"We'll be fine Harry, there are four of us, we have magic, jobs that run themselves, and disposable income. It's poor Tommy I worry about. We signed up for babies, he's going to be stuck in the house with four little babies." Abby she said laying on the bed and rubbing her tummy. "You know it's really starting to hit home for me. With the day's activities this is really the first time I've had to think about it. I'm having twins." She said looking at her flat belly.

"Are two going to fit in there?" Harry asked rubbing her small belly.

"This all expands you know?" She said laughing.

"I know, but twins is a lot right? This was made for one. Now you're cramming two in there." Harry said with a smirk.

"Well they'll have to learn to share at some point, we might as well start them young. You know I never really got your honest opinion on the matter. What's your thoughts on the fact that we're having twins?" She asked.

"Well first of all, you're having twins. I got to do the fun part, you have the shity job of growing them and then pushing them out. In the grand scheme of things I didn't do shit. As for the twins thing, all jokes aside the only thing I'm worried about is them coming out healthy and strong, it's the same thing I worry about with my sister. whenever you have more than one at a time the possibilities of something going wrong, or one of them not growing right, or any number of things can happen. As far as having two at once, it's like you said we can hire nannies and/or house elves, or something like that. As long as you're happy I'm happy." Harry said kissing her.

"This is moving fast isn't it? 15 days ago we barely spent more than a few hours together, now we're having twins and we're getting married. Do you feel rushed?" She asked.

"No, do you?" Harry asked.

"No, I've been waiting for us to hook up since we got here. I was just worried you felt pressured into this." She said.

"The way I see it, we're in an arranged marriage, but in a good one where we love each other and we like hanging out with each other. Like I said I'm getting the best bargain here. you're a beautiful, tall, stacked, blonde goddess, that can keep up with my sister in book smarts and out shoot me. Hell I never really went hunting before you took me. What we did was shoot stuff, you showed me how to gut, clean, and skin an animal. You out maned me and you looked hot as hell doing it. Every time I see you pick up a firearm I get excited and I don't mean giddy. You ended up with an emotionally scarred, battle warn, 35 year old man child. How the hell are you happy with this relationship?" Harry asked laughing.

"True, but you make up for it by being kind, caring, and fun. Being with you these last two week have been the best two week I've had in a long time." She said with a smile as she kissed him.

"Well as long as I'm fun, you know me, I hate not having fun." Harry said with a grin.


	9. Chapter 9

The next six months flew by for the Blackwell and Steel families. In that time a lot had happened but there were no major problems or issues. In fact most of that time was spent on safari. Tommy was extremely happy about that. The boy loved everything about safari, from the light colored cotton khaki expedition shirts, pants, and vests. To the pith helmets and and bush hats. Right down to the canvas walled tents and light expedition style furniture.

Tommy had his own ten foot magical tent that was just slightly expanded on the inside to a small one bedroom 20x30 foot open floor tent space with a wood floor, canvas flap windows with mosquito nets and a small half wall that separated the the living space from the toilet, stand up shower, and small sink. Aside from a minor heating and air conditioning rune activated potbelly stove, the fact that it popped up and collapsed with a spell, and the ward spells his aunt Mia insisted on adding it was as muggle as you could get. As soon as his dad bought him the tent he went about filling it with furniture starting with his writing desk. By the end of the trip his tent was his home. It was full of expedition style furniture made of African woods and exotic animal hides. From his cocobolo four post bed with mosquito netting halo, and the snake wood long gun trunk with fold out legs. To the teak traveling wardrobe trunk, and the camp table and chairs made of rattan and zebra and giraffe hide. He even had a big elephant leather wingback chair and side table made from a gazelle antlers and a disk of ebony wood. The wood floor of the tent was covered in animal hides.

For the most part Tommy was the only one that stayed in camp and he liked that just fine. It was a chance to be a man and be alone with his thoughts and his dog as he liked to say. The fact that he had Abby's 42 inch tv on a table in his tent helped as well. Most of the time the adults stayed on the boat. The boat would spend a week or so in one spot and then they would shrink it and move it to the next closest big body of water. The boys would travel on horseback every few days to the next hunting spot. They would set up a camp which was two tents,Tommy's tent and an identical tent with a living room and dining room set up for the adults to use as a place to rest after the hunt or in his Aunt Mia's case a place to read, work on research projects, and enjoy the peace and quiet, a large fire pit, and an outdoor table and chairs.

Tommy's days were full of excitement, and learning. He got up with the sun, took a shower, and got dressed in his outfit of the day, most of the time it was a white button up shirt, brown pants, brown riding boots, a wide brimmed fedora style bush hat, and his Mummy gun rig and two revolvers. He would walk to the other tent and wait for the adults and play fetch with Max who, even thought he was a fake dog that didn't eat, sleep, or take a shit, still like to play and act like a puppy most of the time. The adults would show up at a little after seven with a trunk of food and they would have breakfast.

The trunk was Hermione's idea. The trunk had metal trays with lids that held the plates of food and kept them hot and fresh. Every morning when the kitchen opened at six in New York Jon Philip would make them lunch and send it over. Which by the time it was cooked it came right at noon. They would send the trunk back along with trunks of whatever they killed that morning. Six hours later at noon New York time he sent dinner which was six o'clock in Africa. They sent the dishes back and right before they closed up the kitchen for the night at nine the last thing he did was make breakfast and send it in the box. The box arrived at three in the morning and sat on the boat in the warming box until seven when they ate breakfast.

After breakfast the men, and sometimes Abby depending on how she felt, the morning sickness was getting to both women and some mornings the only thing that helped was sitting in a cool shaded place sipping ginger peppermint tea. There was a potion they could take but it made them both sluggish and tired. The boys would track game big and small into the bush or the jungle or go exploring little towns and villages. Tommy loved to barter gold or cheap beat up guns and ammo for things like nicknacks and knives. He got really good at it and by the end of the trip he had a good collection of African art in his tent.

By lunch they would come back with something, be it game, or things from the village. They would have lunch at noon and Tommy would spend the next three hours with his mom and aunt learning both magical and muggle studies. While they were doing that Harry and Neville would head back to America and handle any business that came up. They would come back at three and spend the next three hours exploring for a new camp site or hunting. They got Tommy the best camera they could find and he took lots of pictures.

They would come back to the camp around six and have dinner. By the time they were done the adults would sit in the other tent and talk about the company or things they had to do the next day. They made business calls or went back to America to handle meetings. Tommy sat in his tent and did his one hour of homework and then he would write in his diary. When he bought the big leather bound book on a day trip to London with his aunt Mia she asked him what it was for. When he said he had loose bits of paper he had written about the trip to that point she asked to see them. His notes, while written in sloppy little boy handwriting, were good. His notes read like a guide book for kids. With pictures to go along with the entries and in depth accounts of how the animals lived in the wild. Later Hermione helped him turn it into a book after a quick edit to take out any mention of portkeys. They made a short run of the book and sold it as The Children's Guide to Wild Africa. Written and photographed by Thomas Steel. He sold less than 200 copies but he knew what he wanted to do for the rest of his life.

For four and a half months they explored, hunted, and camped sub Saharan Africa. Starting from the Atlantic ocean in Abidjan in the Ivory Coast on january 3. They made it to the Nile in the north of Sudan by May 3. 120 days. They covered an average of about 25 miles a day on horseback. In that time they hunted everything from small birds to huge elephants. Everything was documented, skinned, trophies taken, and the meat sent back to New York where the residents of the Park Place Apartments were treated to novel meals like roasted hawk, to elephant stew. The building manager they hired was using the wild game meals as a selling point of the building. So far they filled up almost all of the apartments and they had to hire more staff. No kill was wasted, even the three hyenas they bagged was turned into an oddly tasty chile that was served to the workers at B&S shipping. They liked it so much there was a request for more. Tommy was only too happy to help supply more. And every kill was documented down to the size, weight, length of teeth and/or claws, and what they ate. He included pictures of it all.

When they made it to the Nile they dropped the boat in the water and from there they drove up the Nile to Cairo over the next month. They stopped to take pictures of pyramids and ancient cities. Again Tommy took time to document it all. The magical tape measure he got on a day trip to Paris got one hell of a work out in Egypt. After all the pyramids were tall and Tommy wanted to know exactly how tall they were. During the last month of the trip they didn't hunt anything but Tommy had a blast exploring tombs and pyramids.

It wasn't all fun though. Harry and Neville retrieved three Dark vault items including the stone. The missions went as planned and after getting the stone Harry looked bored. When you knew where the traps were, and you knew how to turn them off, and you knew where the back door to the treasure room was. It all took the fun out of it. What Harry geared up for was a mission! Something he hadn't had in six months, what he got was a shopping tip.

"This blows." Harry said scooping treasure into a trunk.

"Yeah, knowing where not to step is a bit anti climactic. Hell we even have photos of what we were going to encounter. When you deactivated that gollum with a rock thrown into the wall at the right space I felt sad. Actually sad. We need to get that detective agency up and running. At least if we chase bad guys they might shoot at us and we'd have a reason to pull a gun and fight back, do you have any idea how long it's been since I felt the rush of adrenaline that comes with being shot at? Too long." Neville said.

"I know. I attacked that lion a few weeks ago at the end of the hunt with my knife just to see if it could get me a bit. Nothing. I stalked him, hunted him like prey, pounced on that big cat and drove my knife into it's back hoping for a fight. I must have severed the spine because it died instantly. I actually felt bad. Like really bad for that one." Harry said.

"I saw the look in your eyes. You wanted a fight. You needed it. Tommy thought you were soo cool. I knew you were close to tears of frustration. That's what I'm telling you Harry we need to at the very least start taking bounty contracts. And I know we said we were going to stay out of the wars but come on Harry, tell me you don't want to fly bomber escort in your P51 mustang. Or kill some Nazis. Do some black ops wetwork for the government." Neville said looking excited at the prospect.

"We at the very least have to get a good supply of gas and make a racetrack. We have high end sports cars and I wanna go fast. You know I used to hit up a track day meet up every few weeks when I could. Speed man! At least give me speed!" Harry said tossing the little gold statue into the trunk with enough force to break it.

"I got it, I think what you're saying is that you have a need, the need…"

"FOR SPEED!" They both finished high fiving and laughing.

"You know you two are on open coms right?" Hermione asked into the ear piece in their ears.

"Shit, sorry Mia, I didn't want you girls to hear us bitching about our jobs. We know you two work your asses off to keep this family going." Harry said.

"It's okay. We noticed you two getting antsy. We're just glad it's not because we're pregnant. You two just need some action. We're close boys, just give us a few more weeks and then we can get your security agencies or whatever you want to call it off the ground." Hermione said.

"Good looking out Mia." Harry said going back to his work.

"Thanks luv, I don't deserve you. We'll be done in a bit." Neville said softly.

"Good to hear. We only have a few days left for this trip and we still need to dig up the time turner stones. Getting to them this early will mean that they are bigger." Hermione said.

"Right, see you topside in about ten." Harry said finishing up his work.

When they got back to New York Tommy shrunk all the white furniture in his bedroom and set it off to the side, he expanded his tent in the middle of the room and started unpacking the three trunks of his shrunken trophies. He started with his full body big cats. He set up his big male lion posed in a roar, his Cheetah who was low and ready to pounce, and his big leopard that was resting on a dried out tree log. Once those were situated around his room the way he wanted them he pulled out the pack of three hyenas poised on a big rock and set them up in the corner of the room. He fund his Honey badger in the bottom of the trunk and set it by his tent with a smile.

He opened his second trunk and found big mammals and birds. He pulled out the 14 foot tall giraffe and set it in the opposite corner of his boulder with the hyenas. He found his huge 300lb warthog and put it by his tent. He expanded his six foot tall ostrich and set it by the lion. He left the rest of the birds in the trunk because he neede to string them up to make it look like they were flying. He shut the trunk and set it aside. He opened the last trunk as Harry walked in. he looked around the room and nodded.

"You know son the tent in the room like this looks good. With a mural on the walls to make it look like grass land and a brown carpet on the floor and this room will be so cool. Plus what space you lose by having the tent up you more than make up for it on the inside. Your room is 30x30 foot room, your tent takes up 10x10 foot, but inside it's 30x20 foot. If I was good at math I could tell you how much space you gained but I'm not so I'll just say it's cool." Harry said with a smile.

"The room is 900 square foot. The tent takes up a 100 square foot but I gained 600 square foot. My room now has 1,500 square feet of usable space. Which is good because I'm running out of space to put stuff and I still have a trunk full of birds and a trunk full of mounted heads of huge game." Tommy said and Harry smiled bigger. He was right to let Hermione teach the boy. Tommy would end up smarter than he was.

"Well, we can always add a few expansion charms to your room. That's all I did to the shooting room. It started out as a 25x50 foot just like the library across the hall from it. I cast a double expansion charm and now it 50x100 feet. How big would your room be if we cast a double expansion charm?" Harry asked.

"The room would be 60x60 foot which is 3,600 square feet. With my tent that's… 4,200 square foot? Wow that's big." Tommy said.

"It's a good thing you have a bathroom in your tent. If we put a bunch of fake grass and stuffed animals in the room finding the can in the dark is going to be a bitch. But in the dark with a fake fire pit and some star lights in the ceiling it's going to look like a museum exhibit. Behold the boy explorer in his natural habitat." Harry said laughing.

"Joke all you want but it's what I want to do. I loved every minute of that trip and I can't wait to get back out there. I want to head more south next time. I want to start on the ivory coast and go all the way around the outer coast of Africa to British Somaliland next time." Tommy said with a big grin.

"Well there is always next year. And the year after that we'll go to India, and the year after that maybe we'll head to South America." Harry said.

"That sounds awesome, hey dad, when can you cast the charm on my room? I have a trunk full of wall mounts and not enough space to mount them." Tommy said.

"I can cast it now. Let's see." Harry said pulling out his wand and waving it around the room. A light flashed and the room got blurry for a second before it doubled in size to end up at 60x60 foot and the ceiling was now 30 foot. "There now let's see what you have to mount." Harry said and his voice echoed in the room.

"At this point I'm not even sure. Half of this stuff was from the beginning of the hunt." Tommy said opening the trunk and pulling out mounted heads. He had a Zebra, a Hippo, a kudu, a big water buffalo, a big black rhino, and last but not least a huge elephant with huge 6 foot tusks and a 10 foot long trunk. "I almost forgot about this guy." He said looking at the huge wall mount.

"I think he should hang on the back wall over your tent." Harry said floating the big elephant head up and sticking it to the wall.

"Good call. Help me put the rest up." He said.

The first week back home was a chance for the boys to rest up but the girls were hard at work. You see the trip to Africa was mostly for the boys to have fun and for the girls to get away from the city for a much needed change of pace. It was also a test of the the well oiled machine that was B&S Shipping. In the seven short weeks the company was open before they left the staff of over 100 witches and wizards turned their idea into a working entity and the girls wanted to see how well it did with minimal hands on supervision. In six months they only ran into three major problems that required the girls to step in.

The first issue was they were understaffed. It was an easy fix, the girls handed out a list of five names to the heads of each warehouse and gave them free reign to hire anyone they thought they needed to. The work force ballooned from 100 to 150 in a week. For them it didn't matter. They were pulling in new clients each week and the profit margin was so high that adding 50 people to the payroll at entry level meant it cost them just $850 a day to keep the company running. They were averaging $32,000 a day in business through the company. Even buying up a few more apartment buildings to house the workers was a drop in the bucket. Hermione crunched the numbers and figured out B&S Shipping would average about $11,300,000 in the year 1886. Which was the equivalent of about a billion dollars in 2016. They were quickly becoming the company you go to when you needed something shipped fast, and their 150 percent guarantee on shipment over $1,000 was too good to pass up.

Which in turn caused the second issue. The competition was getting pissed. There were a few attacks on their warehouses. But between the goblin wards and the guard dogs no actual harm had befallen their businesses, but the workers were spooked. Hermione had Harry take care of this issue. Harry had the goblins investigate who was causing all the trouble. It turned out to be two companies that were hit by the sudden appearance of the powerhouse that was B&S Shipping. Harry then paid each of those company heads a visit. He did it in the middle of the night. While they were sleeping in their beds. One minute they would be sleeping safely in their beds and the next minute they would wake up in a dark dank basement. They were naked, and tied to a chair. Harry would then come out of the shadows in a dark robe holding a large rusty knife. He kindly explained that if anything should happen to one of their buildings, or one of their workers they would die screaming. He then stunned them and left them tied to the chair naked in their front yard. They never had another problem after that.

The last problem they had was a shortage of paired portkeys. The company burned through hundreds of them each day. They soon had that figured out too. They figured out a way to print portkey stickers using postage stamp printers. They would make cases of stamps for a rune powered landing pad in each warehouse. Each pad had a different code. And Harry could charge up a pallet of stamps in one go. Each wearhouse got a case of stamps for each of the other 19 warehouses. All the workers had to do was affix the right stamp to the right package and a few seconds later the package was in that wearhouse.

B&S Shipping was doing good. So the girls started to move forwards on the other projects they had lined up. But with them working on starting the next project it meant the month of June was spent killing time for the boys as the girls set up the second floor of the New York warehouse for the clothing factory with help from Percy the ghost and looked at the logistics of starting a investigation agency. It basically boiled down to a long list of Honey Do type things for the boys. Like:

"Harry I need you to go to this warehouse in london and stock up on wool broadcloth in dark colors."

"Neville, be a dear and head to China and see if you can get as much silk for as cheap as you can. Find a wholesaler if you can."

"Harry can you go back to the Haberdashery that sells buttons by the pound and buy them out please?"

"Neville, I talked to a distributor and I need you to go pay for and pick up two hundred sewing machines."

"Harry, go to Rome and offer this man a gold bar to work for us. Tell him to bring anyone else he knows with him."

"Neville, there's a farm that's selling off its stock of fifty cows, can you and Harry go get them, slaughter them, gut them, skin them, hand the meat off to Chef Jon Philip, and tan the hides. Thank you." That one ended up being very messy and it happened a few times with both cows and pigs.

The good news was that by the first of July the second floor was full of life as two hundred seamstresses, twenty-five magical cobblers, and ten magical hatters were up and running and B&S Clothing was soon building stock to start shipping out to cities around the world. They offered simple but well made clothes for common folk at a good price. Since they could buy fabric, thread, and buttons from the suppliers at wholesale prices and ship it to the warehouse for free, the only real overhead they had was the work staff but even that was marginalized by the potential profits.

A plain white button down shirt cost $.05 to make, a magical seamstress could make a hundred shirts a day. They sold that shirt for $2. They paid seamstress $10 a day. They had a hundred seamstresses making shirts. That meant they made 10,000 shirts a day. At a cost of $1,500 for labor and materials. But those shirts were worth. $20,000. For a profit of $18,500. Pants were better. A pair of black slacks cost $.07 to make and a seamstress could make 150 pairs each. 15,000 pairs a pants at a cost of $2,050. They sold for $5 a pair for a profit of $72,950. When Harry heard this he asked why they even bothered making shirts.

"Because Harry, we want to make our company more attractive to stores. If we make shirts, pants, jackets, shoes, and hats for men and skirts, blouses, dresses and jackets for women, we can sell them a mixed crate full of stock and they don't have to order from six different companies. Besides if we really wanted to make a profit we'd just sell hats. Those ten wizards make 2,000 hats a day at $.08 a hat. We pay them $10 a day and we sell the hats for $10 each. That's $19,740 in profits and we can save warehouse space. The shoes are what's killing us. 25 cobblers make 1250 pairs of shoes a day at a cost of $3 a pair and we pay them $15 a day. Bringing the coast up to $4,125 sure we sell the shoes for $10 a pair bout the profits suck. $8,375. The price of tanned leather hide is kicking our ass. We either need to find a way to bring the cost down or cut the shoe division." Hermione said.

"Can we use deer? Me, Tommy and Neville could supply you with a hundred deer hides in a weekend. Especially if we're hunting for hide and meat, I know their half the size of a cow hide but it's free. Deer drop like a sack of hammers if you shot them in the head and the meat taste better that way. Plus we can sell the meat. The same can be said for bison or elk." Harry said.

"I'll look into it. Either way I think you boys should go track down as much deer, wolves and rabbits as you can. We can get a jump on winter gear. Also I want to look into buying up herds of cattle from ranches. But if we get too into that we'll need to hire butchers. And what are we going to do with all that meat? As we grow into new businesses we keep adding divisions and getting bigger which in turn require us to add even more divisions. I have a feeling that one day down the line B&S is going to bigger then GE." She said looking out over the floor and seeing the 200 seamstresses working.

"Well we're here to help. I can talk to Jon Philip and see if he knows a few more magical butchers. At this point a lot of companies know we can deliver fast and fresh foods around the world. How hard would it be to make a meat company? We can conjure dry ice, we'll say it's special ice from a factory. We'll advertise top quality meats at a good price. If we buy cattle by the herd we can get a cow for $7 and a pig for $2. On top of that deer, elk, and bison are free, less than free because I'll earn dad points with my kid if I take him hunting every week. So even if we have to hire five butchers to process the cows for us, the boys at Park Place can butcher 50 cows in a day. As long as we sell a cow's worth of meat for over $9 we're making a small profit. And like I said pigs, deer, elk, and bison are even cheaper with a wider profit margin. With about ten more cold storage trunks we can get a jump on this and have an even bigger surplus of meat then we have now so when this business takes off like everything else we do we won't have to scramble to catch up." Harry said.

"I'll sit down with Abby and Tommy and make them tonight. You should join us, it's not a hard enchantment string and with four of us working we can get done faster. Maybe if Neville sees you doing it he'll join in." She said.

"Sounds good. Tomorrow I'll find a few herds of cattle. Maybe I'll find a cattle auction. I always wanted to do that." Harry said with a big grin.

By mid July B&S Meats was up and orders were coming and going through the shipping company. It was shocking how fast things worked when you threw buckets of money at a problem. And on the up side the boys got to go on a weekend hunting trip every weekend for work. They 'hired' Tommy as their meat provider for elk and venison. He was paid a whole dollar for each deer the boys took down. He averaged $35 a weekend. But like Harry warned the demand outpaced the supply. They raised the prices and the demand stayed high so Harry came up with a plan. Super farming. Or that's what he called it. He bought a huge 20 square mile patch of land in Kansas. He paid $20,000 or about $1.56 an acre. There was a nice sized lake in the middle of the land and it was covered in trees. He paid the goblins $18,000 to put up 18 miles of warded fencing around property and another $5,000 to cast the green house charms and wards over the area. The charms were used to control the weather over sensitive magical plant farms. Outside of the property it could be a blizzard. Inside it would be mid 60's and raining. Then Harry, Tommy and Neville went through every square inch of the place and killed anything that could harm the deer, elk bison, and rabbits. They bagged 114 wolves, 26 coyotes, 43 Black bears, 14 brown bears, 25 foxes, 9 mountain lions, and 16 bobcats. Next they went out and captured Deer, elk, and bison and dumped them into the big pen. With comfortable climates and a lack of predators the deer, elk, and bison would grow bigger and have more offspring. They also dumped shipments of barriers, apples, oats, buckwheat, corn and carrots into the big pen when they could get them cheap. In six months they had a huge population of deer and elk. Even the bison were growing in number. They were tripping over rabbits. Every weekend they would go into the pen and take out some of the biggest ones to supply the meat company. It was more farming and population control then hunting but it kept the meat company going.

Harry also bought up a few farms in Texas and did something similar there. On his huge 20 square mile farm he had farmers raising cows on a diet of grass, corn, and hay. Harry packed 9,000 cows into his farm which according to Abby was fine.

"Rule of thumb is 1.5 acres per cow of grazing land but you're supplementing field grass with bales of fresh cut grass, hay, and corn. The six magical farm hands summon the shit out of the pens and you have a good magical water trough system. You could fit about 5,000 more cows in this farm if you wanted to without running into problems." She said when he asked her if they were okay.

"Good to know. As long as I'm not being overly cruel I'm fine. Cows have a sad existence as it is. We don't need to make it worse." Harry said.

"Between the open pens, quality feed, and stunning the cows before you butcher them these are the best treated cows in the world. If it were up to me I'd fill the land with 100x50 foot barns with expansion charms on the inside and cram another 17,000 cows in here and I'd feed them a diet of heavy corn to fatten them up faster. Hell Harry you have live bulls circulating through the pens and impregnating the cows the old fashioned way. You could save money and time by inseminating the cows by hand." She said.

"Eww. No thank you. Nature has worked like this since the dawn of time, I think we can let it do it's thing for now. Gross." Harry said looking green.

"You might have a cattle ranch but you are definitely not a rancher yet." She said patting him on the back.

July creeped by with everyone so busy they almost forgot about Harry and Neville's birthday. It was Tommy that approached his mom and aunt on the 25th to ask them what they planned for the party that remained the two women it was late July. On the 31st, Abby woke Harry up with a Happy Birthday.

"Is it really?" Harry asked scratching his head.

"Yes, and we have the whole day planned out for you and Neville. We're going to Scotland, well the island not the main land." She said.

"Scotland? What's in Scotland?" Harry asked.

"You'll see. Now get dressed. We need to have breakfast before we go. Come on, I'll wash your back." She said getting off the bed with some difficulty. At seven months pregnant her belly was huge and unwieldy. But at least she was tall. At just under six foot tall she was carrying better than Hermione who was a half a foot shorter. Harry hopped off the bed and hurried around to the other side to help her up.

"I got you. How are you feeling today?" Harry asked holding her from behind.

"Much better, in fact if I didn't have to pee every ten minutes I'm fine. Hermione is the one that can barely walk. I mean look at Neville, those kids are going to come out huge. Poor girls going to be ripped in half delivering those kids." She said as he walked her to the bathroom.

"Well you're lucky. I was 5'9" until I took the potion that healed my eyes and fixed my body and I was a tiny kid." Harry said getting the shower going.

"Good." She said patting her belly.

They had breakfast in the kitchen, they still didn't have a dining room table, but the the room was full of hunting trophies. In fact at this point all the rooms were full of hunting trophies, bear skin rugs, and fur throws. After breakfast they all took a portkey and ended up in an alley across the street from a factory made of cobblestone. Harry stepped out into the street and that's when he saw the sign over the gate.

"Highland Park Distillery? You got us a tour of the distillery?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Yes and no. Come on, we're almost late for the meeting." Hermione said leading them through the gate and up to a big man with red hair and a big bead dressed in a suit waiting for the by the front door.

"Good Afternoon Mrs. Blackwell, Mrs. Steel. And these two must be the lucky men? I'm Angus Stewart, good meet ya laddies." He asked in a deep Scottish accent.

"Hello Angus, sorry we're late. Slow start to the day as you can imagine. They think their getting a tour." Hermione said sharing a laugh with the big scotsman as they walked into the building.

"We're not getting a tour?" Harry asked looking at the cask houses.

"Maybe later sir. For now we have some paperwork to handle." Angus said with a smirk as he lead them to a table in the tasting room.

"Paperwork… No! You didn't!" Harry said.

"Buy the distillery for you two? Sure we did." Hermione said from her spot at the table.

"Both of us?" Neville asked.

"We know how much you two love the 25 year old scotch so we were going to buy you a few casks of it but then Hermione asked what it would take to buy the place. Turns out they had a price and we didn't blink." Abby said.

"They showed up with a trunk full of pound sterling notes. It was more money than any of us had ever seen and when they made the terms of the deal so good we jumped at the offer." Angus said laughing.

"What are the terms of the deal?" Harry asked sitting down at the table next to Abby.

"Once you both sign these documents you are the owners of the distillery sort of. Your sister is crazy if you ask me. She's bought a name, two casks of the 25 year old of that year, and 65 percent of the profits. She's even covering the shipping of our bottles! I've been trying to tell her it's a bad deal for you folks but she's the one that set it up that way." Angus said.

"So we get to say we own Highland Park, we get 65 Percent of the profits, and we get two casks a year? How many bottles are in a cask?" Harry asked.

"For the 25 year old? About 230 bottles." Angus said.

"460 bottles every year? Can we get those bottled and numbered? And can we keep the empty barrels?" Harry asked excitedly.

"Yes?" Angus said looking at Harry like he too was touched in the head.

"What happened to the other 35 percent of the profits?" Neville asked.

"It's split. 15 percent is put into a fund for upkeep of the buildings and stills. 5 percent is put into a fund to pay workers more as we expand our business. 15 percent goes to the owner and founding family. It's the reason this sale went through so fast." Angus said.

"And he's also the head of the company I'm guessing? He controls how the whiskey is made?" Neville asked.

"Yes." Angus said.

"So we paid how much to buy ownership of the company?" Harry asked with a big grin.

"One million pounds." Angus said.

"And what is that in US dollars?" Harry asked.

"It's just shy of five million dollars Harry." Hermione said.

"Wow, we got a fucking deal." Harry said.

"It get's better then that, we looked at the books. They pulled in 180,000 pounds in profits last year. That's $900,000. If they do the same amount of business this year we stand to make $585,000 off this deal. Plus the bottles we get. And with the 15 percent we're putting back into the company we're looking at getting back a steady 20 percent increase in production over the next 25 years. We'll make back our investment in four years and double it in six." Hermione said as Harry and Neville signed the paperwork.

"You two are the best! Can we get the bottles now? I want to see it getting bottled if I can. This is the best." Harry said excitedly.

"Yes, we can do that now." Angus said finally understanding the math behind the investment.

For the next three hours the boys walked through the distillery and watched their favorite scotch being made. At the end they watched as two cask barrels were pulled down from the rack house shelf and bottled. They labbed each bottle with a number and boxed them up, 12 bottles to a wooden crate with the label on the crate. The whole time the boys had huge grins on their faces. They ended with 38 cases and four bottles. 460 bottles. They loaded the cases onto a cart along with the two empty barrels. They put the first ten bottles from each cask into special wood gift boxes with the date on the barrel and the date it was bottled branded on the box. They had the cart drive up the road to the warehouse they bought just for shipping whiskey. They shrank the cases, boxed them up in a trunk and sent it to New York. They had dinner/lunch at a nice restaurant before they headed back to New York. When they landed in the warehouse it was just after one and the workers were rushing around moving shipments, shrinking and expanding crates, and portraying them out. Tommy jogged over to David and asked a few questions, David pointed him to a corner of the warehouse and Tommy ran back to the group.

"Now it's my turn to give you my present. I used some of my money but mom pitched in a lot, well most of it. And aunt Mia helped me buy them." Tommy said leading them to two large objects under drop cloth tarps. "Open them up!" Tommy said waving at the two object.

Harry and Neville pulled back the tarps and they weren't sure what they were looking at. It looked like an odd looking tricycle with some kind of engine in the back. Harry and Neville shared a confused look before turning to their better halves for help.

"It's a Karl Benz motorwagen number 2! It's the first car ever made!" Abby said excitedly.

"No shit? Benz as in Mercedes Benz? Now that's cool!" Harry said looking the 'car' over.

"It has a 1.1 kilowatt engine capable of reaching 16 kilometers and hour!" Tommy said.

"Well I'm sure we can do better than that, what do you say Nev?" Harry asked looking at the odd looking engine in the back.

"I don't think so Harry, maybe if we buy two more but I'm keeping this as stock as can be. The first car. I wonder how it works." Neville said hopping up to the carriage style seat.

"It comes with an instruction book but it's written in german. Aunt Mia said she could read it. And translate it for you." Tommy said.

"Come here kid, this is a great gift son. You did real good. I didn't even know this was a thing." Harry said hugging the boy.

"Me either. It is an odd bit of mechanical engineering. Not a real car in the sense of four wheels, engine, three pedals, and a steering wheel, but it looks fun." Neville said hugging the boy.

The month of August blew by fast and the month of September crashed into them like a ton of bricks. There were so many things going on all at once and it all fell on the boys to handle almost all of it. With both women in their last month of pregnancy they were on limited duty and a lot of bed rest, especially Hermione who spent the last two weeks of August running the companies from her desk at home. She was due any day now. Abby was due at the end of the month. On top of that the girl's own birthdays were that month as well. Hermione's was the 19th and Abby's was the 31st. Tommy, in an act of pure heart warming sweetness asked if his birthday could be shared with his brother and sister so they all had the same birthday. That made Abby cry and hug the boy.

So as the month of September started up Harry and Neville went into full crisis management mode. Tommy was a huge help. He stayed with his mom and aunt at the apartment and acted as both servant and watchdog. Harry, on the sly taught him the health monitoring charm and they worked on it until he could cast it without his wand and with just a muttered incantation. He spent his days helping them make calls, getting them books off shelves, getting them drinks and snacks, and monitoring their health with his stealth monitoring charm. The girls knew he was casting the charm and reporting to the boys but they thought it was cute.

The first saturday of September Harry and Neville turned the second bedroom next to Neville and Hermione's room into a nursery with four cribs, a couch, a rocking chair, and a changing table. They added a soft green carpet and a mural of rolling hills, blue skies, and soft white clouds. Hermione cast a few charms and enchantments on the ceiling to make it look like the great hall ceiling. Tommy asked her to do his room as well. His room now looked like the African savanna with potted plants and savanna grass, and murals of grasslands and sky. As the days ticked by Neville and Harry were more and more on edge. By the 10th even Tommy stared get on edge. Hermione was not. In fact as the days ticked by women looked more relaxed. By the fifteenth she was six days past due and happy as could be.

"How are you not freaking out? You're almost a week overdue." Harry said.

"Harry I was born on the 19th of september. My due date was the 5th of September. All women on my mother's side are overdue mothers. We take it as a good sign. All the overdue babies tend to be smarter, driven, and over achievers." Hermione said.

"And we deliver early by a week. We'll both deliver any day now." Abby said with a smile.

"Great. Thanks for telling us, we've been freaking out all month." Harry said.

"Yeah what he said." Neville said.

"Oh relax. We're witches. When our water breaks we call the doctor and take a portkey to the clinic." Hermione said.

"We also have access to modern magical medicine, including numbing spells, healing potions, and we made a full kit of positions to speed up recovery time for both of us. We can deliver tomorrow and be on our feet by the next day looking just a bit bloated. We should be back to full health in three days and a week later it will look like we never had kids. Do you think we want to look like we just had twins?" Abby said.

"So you're unbelievably hot toned figure is going to come back?" Harry asked.

"Well mostly, these boobs are an important food source after all." Abby said hefting her now much larger chest.

"So my two new friends get to stay?" Harry asked with a smirk. Abby just rolled her eyes.

As the 19th got closer Harry and Neville planned a small part for Hermione. On the morning of the 19th Hermione was treated to breakfast in bed served to her by Tommy who was all dressed up like a pirate.

"Happy birrrrrrthday Aunt Mia, did you know that today be talk like a pirate day as well? arrrrr." Tommy asked. He was dressed like Jack Sparrow with his sword and his flintlock pistol.

"I did not." She said with a big smile.

"Well it is. Arrr. and today be a day of celebration. Arrrr." Tommy said.

"You're so cute. Come and sit with me. You can help me eat all these berries." She said making room for him as Neville got out of bed to take a shower.

That whole day was spent pampering the mother to be on her birthday. At dinner that night they each brought out wrapped gifts. From the shape of the gifts she could tell they were all artwork. She expected a few nice watercolors to hang in the library what she got was six of her all time favorite pieces of art. From Harry she got one of Monet's Saint Lazare Train Station for the series as well as Monet's Impression, Sunrise. Abby got her Manet's Banks of the Seine at Argenteuil. Tommy got her Renoir's Two Sisters on the Terrace. And Neville got her Caillebotte Paris Street a Rainy Day.

"How?" She asked afraid to touch the artwork with her hands.

"Well, when one has money, and one has access to goblins that can broker deals with art collectors, things like this are a matter of making a list, and signing a bank draft." Harry said with a smirk.

"My good I'm holding a Monet. I'm touching a priceless work of art." She said looking dizzy.

"Easy Mia, it's a birthday gift I don't want you passing out." Harry said.

"Harry I think my water just broke." She said.

"Oh god! Here let me take that and let's get you to the clinic." Harry said taking the painting and setting it down on the floor.

"Not On The Floor!" she screamed. "Sorry, but my god it's a Monet, set the paintings on the table in the library, be careful please. And thank you all, this is a gift beyond words. I love you all and as soon as I get back I'm going to cast as many protection charms on those paintings as I can. Tommy can you get my leather bag from my room by my bed?" Hermione said.

"Sure aunt Mia." Tommy said rushing out of the kitchen behind the three adults.

They all portkeyed to the clinic together and when they landed the doctor was waiting for her. She was shown to a room with Abby and Neville by her side. Tommy and Harry were shown to the waiting room by one of the nurses. Tommy sat down in one of the chairs and pulled out a book, a bottle of coke, and a bag of Honeydukes candies from his messanger bag. He took off his sword and flintlock pistol and put them in his bag. He cast a muttered spell at the chair to make it bigger, stretched out on the chair with Max by his side, and started to read.

"How are you so calm?" Harry asked.

"It's like aunt Mia said. This is magical child birth. I have more books, sodas, and things in my bag if you want some." Tommy said opening his bottle of coke using a bottle opener on his pocket knife.

"I need something stronger than soda pop son." Harry said pulling out a flask and a mini cigar.

For the next half hour Harry paced, smoke, and drank from his flask. Tommy read his book and pet his dog. Abby came out looking pale and tired. She walked up to Harry and hugged him.

"You okay? You look pale." Harry asked.

"I think something I ate at dinner is not agreeing with me. I feel sick and hot and cold at the same time." She said as her water broke. "Shit." She said.

"WHat?" Harry asked looking panicked.

"Harry, I need you to be calm and relaxed. My water just broke." She said.

"THat's okay we can get you a new one." Harry said and then his brain made sense of the words she just said. Fear, adrenaline, and panic shot through him. "NURSE! My wife is going into labor!" He screamed as Abby held her face and shook her head.

"CALM DOWN DAD!" Tommy shouted setting his book down and walking over to his mother. "Are you feeling any contractions or anything like that?" Tommy asked.

"No sweetie it's just starting. Why don't you go back to reading. It's going to be a long night. You have your blanket and pillow right?" She said brushing his hair back with a soft smile.

"You mom. I have my whole kit do you want me to run back to the Apartment and get your bag?" Tommy asked.

"Maybe later. For now just go back to your book." She said.

"Okay, I love you mom, and I can't wait to meet my brother and sister." Tommy said hugging her once more before he retook his seat. Harry for his part still looked panicked and freaked out.

"As for you, I need you to relax too. It's going to be a long night." She said patting Harry on the cheek with a smile.

Her words would be very prophetic. They landed in Chicago just after six. Hermione delivered her twins Francis Daniel Blackwell and Emily Alison Blackwell, at ten minutes to midnight September 19,1886. Abby followed her an hour later with her twins, Robert James Steel and Lilith Mary Steel, September 20,1886. Like Harry and Neville before them they were born and hour apart. Both set of babies were healthy and powerful. Both mothers were resting soundly. And both fathers stood over two cribs with four sleeping babies.

Harry pulled out his watch and cast a monitoring charm on all four babies and connected them to his watch. As he connected each one the red dot over the building kept getting bigger. He clicked on the dot and tracked all the dots in the building to family members. Neville did the same thing. When they were done Harry pulled out a knife and cut his left palm. He handed the knife to Neville who did the same thing. He set the knife down and they clasped their left hands. They pulled their wands and both made a vow to protect these children with their life if necessary. The light of their magicals flared and the two men nodded to each other.

They checked their chests under their shirts and saw two house crests tattooed on their pecks. Their own over their heart and the others on their right side. They checked the children and saw on the bottom of their feet was the two house crests. Neither men saw Tommy standing in the doorway listening to what they were saying. Tommy went back to the waiting room and took off his shoes and socks. He found the two house crests on the bottom of his feet. He pulled out his wand and even though he didn't know what he was doing he vowed to look after his siblings and cousins. His magic gave off a flash and the crests got darker.


	10. Chapter 10

For the next month the two families lives were dictated by the whims of four small beings. The girls got out of the hospital late the day after delivery and over the next three days they recovered at home in bed. The men moved a crib into each master bedroom next to the bed to be able to get to the kids faster so they could feed them and change them quickly during the night without having to run to another room in the big ass house. Everything they read said that the kids would fall into a natural feeding schedule. And they did after a few days.

They would get up every three hours needing to be fed and changed. The problem was each twin in a set of twins was on different feeding schedules then their brother or sister. But when one woke up and started screaming it set off the other one who was trying to sleep which made them cranky about being woken up between feedings. That meant both parents had to get up and take care of them at the same mother would feed the hungry one and the father would have to spend time trying to get the other one back to sleep. This meant the guys got a few extra hours of sleep every night but not much.

During the day the girls took care of the kids so the guys could handle anything going on with B&S and it's many divisions. The girls took this time to try to get in a few more hours of sleep. With the guys getting the easier job at night and the girls getting a few small naps during the day they were all getting about five hours of broken up sleep a day.

It also meant they were two smarter women short to cover everything. With the girls stuck at home and trying to get some sleep the guys had to be all over the place fixing things. The shipping company was running smoothly but the clothing factory was a pain in the ass. The factory itself ran fine for the most part, Percy the ghost keep the workers on task and kept up with the inventory quotas for the day. It was the sales side that sucked. Harry and Neville had to help their new staff of salesmen find their feet. They had six salesmen using portkeys to travel around the world selling the B&S clothing line to shops and stores. They had a few adds in papers and they handled distribution through their shipping company to local post offices for orders over $25. They were making a huge stockpile of premade clothes in regular sizes they just had to get people to buy it. The boys spent most of their days going on sales meetings with chain store owners. But while they were putting out fires in the clothing company division it left the the other two branches open to issues and their was no one to handle them.

Running the huge company got so bad that at one point Tommy was the only one that could cover meetings for the meat company based out of the expanded kitchen of Park Place and the New York shipping company warehouse. That day he earned his pay. He settled a dispute with shipping orders with David in the New York wearhouse, fired two of the six workers that took care of the wild farm in Kansas for not keeping up with their quotas and drinking on the job, and he personally shot 16 deer, 6 elk, 3 bison, and 98 rabbits that day to help get the meat company back in the surplus to fill orders. His father handed him a gold brick and hugged him with tears in his eyes when he came in that day and reported his activities. He didn't even know the meat company was in trouble. He didn't get the note on the table. If Tommy hadn't have handled it thing could have gotten ugly.

By week two the girls were at the end of their ropes with the crazy schedule the kids had. But they were the walking dead by week three. That's when Tommy came through for them big time again. He called his dad into his room as he got ready for the day in his tent.

"What can I do for you son?" Harry asked as Tommy ditched his bathrobe and dressed for the day.

"Dad, I talked to Beth, you know the lady that runs the front desk? She said her older sister Susan is a low powered witch and she didn't go to Salem. But she worked for a family as a nanny for the last ten years. She said the kids she took care of are headed off to Salem and she's looking for work. She's a live in nanny, and she's really good with kids. She took care of twin babies and an older boy at the same time. Beth said she could get in touch with her if you wanted to meet her. She also said she had another younger sister that's looking to become a nanny too. Her name is Penny and she's 14. She said the two would be willing to bunk together and since Susan would be showing Penny the ropes she would take half pay. She said their mother is not doing too well and they need to sell the farm. Margaret was thinking about hiring the two girls in the shipping company but when I said we could use some help looking after the kids she told me all this. I think if you helped them with the farm and moved the three women here to New York you could get the two sisters to work for us. Even if they just helped take care of the babies during the day to give mom and aunt Mia some time off it would be worth it. She also said Susan taught the kids she nannied for how to read, write, and things like that." Tommy said pulling on his heavy black canvas pants, thin dragonhide vest, heavy green button up shirt, black vest, and black riding boots.

"Tommy you're a lifesaver. You did good son, I owe you big time." Harry said looking ready to fall over.

"I'm here to help dad. It's my job to look after my family as a man. It's like you and uncle Neville taught me. Now should I set up a meeting for Sunday when we'll all be here? All I have to do is get Beth a set of portkeys." Tommy asked adding his pocket watch, pocket knife, gold card holder, fountain pen, money bag, and wallet to his pockets and bag. He pulled on a black tie and fixed his collar in the mirror.

"Yes, here take a few sets, you've been using up a lot of your stock." Harry said handing him a stack of cards with stamps and numbers from a gold card holder. Tommy took them and added them to his card holder in his pants pocket.

"Thanks dad. I'll set it up for lunch Sunday. Now I have to head to the deer farm and help them fill their quota." Tommy said pulling on a cross draw black leather holster over his vest with his colt lighting. The holster was something he made with help from his mom. He made it after he saw the movie Tombstone. It was a copy of Doc Holliday's shoulder rig and it hung low enough to not block him from getting to his undercover rig. He checked his guns in his bag and grabbed his colt 1911 and wand off his bed side table and put them in his undercover shoulder rig.

"I can't tell you how proud of you I am, you've really stepped up kid." Harry said.

"Well I have to dad. Were down two very powerful, smart and well organized ladies. It takes all three of us to do the job they do with ease and we're dropping the ball. We have to stick together to keep the company going. Oh I forgot to tell you. We've decided to summon all the rabbits into a big cage in the clearing by the lake a few days ago. I know you like the animals to be free to roam about but the rabbits are causing a lot of issues and they're growing out of control. This way we can manage the population better if we can see the numbers. Also Max can fill the daily quota of rabbits in a few minutes. He jumps into the cage and just starts biting the little heads off the bigger ones. It kills them instantly. It's gross but fast and effective. It also saves on ammo. We just summon the dead ones out of the cage." he said putting on his long leather coat and wide brimmed hat. He checked the small .22 in his coat pocket, slung his bag over his shoulder, and put on his small Jim West style blue sunglasses. He was on a western kick lately.

"You look so grown up like that. You're becoming a man and I fear we're pushing that along with the time were putting into the babies. Do you feel put out son?" Harry asked.

"Not at all. I'm happy I can help. I can't take care of the babies. I can't take meetings with clients or customers for the shipping company or the clothing company like you and uncle Neville can. The meat company is my job. I can run that. All the employees know me and take orders from me. I can make sure things are running smoothly and the hunting for game is still fun even if it's like shooting fish in a barrel. Maybe with the two nannies we can get mom and aunt Mia some more sleep and they can make sure we don't bumble the company up. Now I'm off to work. See you home for lunch?" Tommy asked walking out the front door.

"I think so, if not me then everyone else. I have the shipping company stuff to do in the morning and a meeting at the bank about some land I want to buy. Neville is stuck here with the four twins and covering sales meetings later." Harry said.

"Good luck with that." Tommy said with a smirk as he headed out with Max.

"Your son is 11 going on 31." Neville said looking disheveled.

"My son just saved our ass. He's setting up a meeting with Margaret's and Beth's two sisters, they're magical nannies. We're saved." Harry said checking his tie in the mirror by the door.

"Really?" Neville asked with hope in his eyes.

"Yes. The interview is this Sunday. By Monday I'm hoping to have two live-in Nannies." Harry said.

"I owe that kid of yours big time." Neville said.

"I think we all do. We can make it up to him by taking him on safari again. He can write another book." Harry said.

"That fact still get to me. Your boy is an author. We'll see about safari. It might not be an easy thing this year. We may be bogged down with the kids and work for a while. Plus the Stone is done and the potion is being made as we speak. We're going to need to set aside a few months for all of us to take it. We can't all be down at once so we have to take it in shifts. Starting with you." Neville said.

"I know. We'll concentrate on getting these two nannies and we'll see how they work out. Maybe we can send the boy and some of the other kids from the company on safari with some adult supervision. I know I can send Tommy into the bush by himself but with some kids his age maybe we can get him some friends that are younger than Beth at the front desk." Harry said.

"Sounds good. Now if you'll excuse me I'm on baby watch while my wife get some sleep. Little Emma had a rough night last night. She would not go down and she was running a slight temperature. We didn't sleep at all last night. We kept a close eye on her." Neville said looking dead.

"Well I hope she's feeling better. Do you want me to get the Doc?" Harry asked.

"No, for now Hermione wants to just monitor it. It's not a high fever." He said.

"Well call me if anything happens." Harry said leaving out the front door.

That sunday at noon three thin girls with jet black hair, soft brown eyes, and nice nice but nervous smiles knocked on the door. Harry answered the door with a smile of his own.

"Hello Beth, these must be your sisters Susan and Penny. It's nice to meet you both, why don't you all come in, we'll order lunch and talk as we eat." Harry said ushering them into the house.

"I have to get back to work. I just wanted to walk them up." Beth said.

"Right, you're still on the desk at this hour. Make sure you eat something, you're looking thin." Harry said.

"Yes Mr. Ste… Harry. You tell me that every time you see me." Beth said with a smile.

"Well as soon as you weigh more the 90 lbs I'll stop saying it. Come in ladies. The kitchen is this way. We have a dining room but no table yet. We really need to get one at some point. I'm Harry Steel by the way." He said shaking their hands as he held the kitchen door for them.

"Our saviors have arrived." Hermione said getting out of her seat to greet the two girls. "I'm always happy to hire more White family women. I was so happy when we hired your sister Margaret, and we were pleased to see Beth working the front desk." Hermione said looking dead.

"We've heard nothing but good things about all of you, what we can hear about. You keep your employees under some heavy oath spells. We understand it's to protect the business. But I must admit a part of me wants to work for you to be let in on the whole truth." Susan said as Neville and Abby came into the room with their arms full of babies. "Oh would you look at these four. So cute." She said with a smile full of love and joy at seeing little babies.

"Let's order lunch and we'll talk terms." Harry said making two cribs with a wave of his hand.

They sat around the counter and ate as they talked for a good hour. Both girls were kind, respectful, nice girls that were good with the four twins and were in it for the long haul. Harry agreed to buy out their farm from the bank and keep it going with hired farm hands, he would split the profits with them 85/15 with the bigger chunk going to the ladies of the house of White. They hired them both for $25 a day each and gave them the first bedroom on the left to share. Harry cast an expansion charm on the room making it as big as Tommy's room at 60x60 feet. It was big enough to be a full apartment with walls separating off two bedrooms, a living room, and the bathroom. Harry also gave them a $100 bonus for signing on. $50 each to help with the cost of furniture for their room, one of the one bedroom apartments in the building for their mother so all the sisters could look after her. And $300 each in back pay for the month of October. As soon as they signed the contract and swore the oath they told the girls the truth about where they were from and who they were. It was a secret only a few people knew but now all of the sister's White were in that group. They were shocked at first but then they shrugged and took it in stride like their other sisters did.

For the next two weeks the sisters got settled in and started taking the pressure off the family. It took some adjusting at first. They didn't know who much they should or shouldn't say around the sisters. It was odd. One minute they would stop talking when one of the sisters would walk into the room and then overnight it seemed like they just nodded to the sisters and kept up the conversation. It was mostly two things Harry figured out. One, the sisters acted like they were part of the family very quickly. Susan's decade long posting with her last family helped her to adjust to them fast and she in turn helped her sister act accordingly. The second reason the sisters got along so well had a lot to do with the girls looking for friends. The guys had each other and Tommy who acted like a mini Harry. The girls had each other and that was it. They needed someone else to talk to every day besides each other. Especially over the last month where the guys had taken over running the B&S empire and that left the girls at home to deal with fussy infants that liked to be up at different times and no one to talk to.

The sisters each took time with each set of twins and soon they too found a groove. Susan, the more experienced of the two sisters tended to spend more time with Abby who needed the most help seeing as she was the least motherly of the two new moms. But with a few weeks of help from Susan she figured it out and through learning and teaching they became more like girlfriends sharing things and laughing. Penny on the other hand really liked hanging out with Hermione. She was more like a cool aunt then her boss and the two spent most of their days chatting in between naps and feedings. Hermione figured out that even though Penny was under powered as a witch she had a mind for learning and a drive to study. Soon they started looking at things like potions, and enchantments. Things that required little to no magic or that you could do most of the work and just have someone like Harry charge up your work when you were done.

Soon after the girls came to work for them the family celebrated their first year in the past by moving the dining room table out of the cube and setting it up in the dining room. Harry cooked chicken tacos like the first night. They all sat around the table and talked about what they accomplished in one year and for the most part they were happy. They were rich, respected, they employed close to 500 people. They owned large swats of future prime real estate. Then there was the kids. Tommy, Bobby, and Lily Steel and Frank and Emma Blackwell. They had a good life, and it kept getting better by the day. But as good as it was, the family meeting was also a post mortem of their old life as well.

"I wish I could just drive my car. Instead of ride horses all over the place. A real honest to god car won't be made for 15-20 years. My ass hurts already thinking about riding a horse for that long." Neville said.

"Tell me about it. I wish we could buy some new tech too. Laptops and TVs. Things we need. As it is we're going to have to wait for things like that and if my big ass 72 inch tv goes out we're screwed. We only have three 42 inch TVs after that." Harry said.

"Don't even say that dad. That TV is very important to my education." Tommy said making them all laugh.

"Well you don't have to worry too much. One of the things I'm working on was something I came up with a while ago and never had the time to finish. As you know the op phones are made of enchanted glass that acts as a smart phone. It took a long time to come up with the enchantments for it and even longer to come up with a digital to magical conversion but I think I can replicate it on a bigger piece of glass. We'll never have to worry about TVs or laptops for that matter. I just have to get it to work." Hermione said.

"Thank God!" Tommy said.

"You know kid you're going to run out of movies at some point and then you're going to be stuck waiting for cinema to catch up and it's going to be a long time for that." Harry said.

"I know, it's why I'm slowing down and rewatching stuff. Like the Mummy and the Mummy returns. And all the Indiana Jones films. And all the westerns of course. The magnificent 7, the Man With no Name trilogy, Young Guns, Django Unchained, and of course Tombstone. I'm your huckleberry." Tommy said with a southern lilt pulling back his coat to show off his colt in the cross belly holster.

"Nice son." Harry said patting the boy on the shoulder as he laughed.

"I miss things like modern shampoo and conditioner. Spells do not work as well as some good shampoo and conditioner. And soap, I burned through most of the 12 pack of Dove bath and beauty bars I had in my tent. I'm running out and the stuff I found in that fancy soap shops in Paris sucks." Abby said.

"Try the little beauty shop in Salem. They make a soap that's really nice. I have an extra bar if you want to try it." Susan said.

"Life saver! This is why we need more girlfriends." Abby said.

"I think we all need to make some more friends. We can't just rely on us for company. That should be our goal this year, make some friends." Hermione said.

"I thought the goal this year was the Security and Investigation company?" Harry asked.

"It is, but we need more friends, and also a bigger table. We barly if on this one." Hermione said.

"I have my brother and sister, My boy and my wife. You two sisters makes six people, I don't need no more friends, I need to shoot at someone and have them shoot back. I'm an adrenaline junky and I haven't had a fix in a year. Do you have any idea how much fun it is to kick in a door? I miss that." Harry said looking wistful. Hermione was going to roll her eyes but she saw the same look on her husband's face and she knew they needed this. For her it was business as usual. She had her book work and her inventions to make her feel happy. Her husband and brother needed to feel useful to be happy.

"I'll get on it first thing. We need infrastructure and staff to get it up off the ground first. We'll start with a building we can use as our main office. We'll set up small satellite offices close by our Warehouses later. Once we have that we'll start recruiting Operatives." Hermione said.

"Not Operatives. Agents Mia. Agents of B&S Security and investigation. BSSI for short." Harry said.

The next two weeks were spent gathering things they needed to get BSSI off the ground. They started with a three floor brick building that took up the whole block between Battery Park avenue and Morris Street on Broadway. It was one block east of their warehouse. The building was shit. It was a mixed office and warehouse building that needed to be torn down. So Harry bought it for $50,000 and the goblins tore it down. The goblins set up wards around the block and the day after he bought it they demolished it down to the sub basement. Then they went in and built a ten floor office building made of steel frame and limestone blocks. The block the building was on was an odd shape. It was 528 feet long and 307 feet wide on one side and 532 feet long and 377 feet wide on the other. so the goblins squared off the building at 520 by 300 feet and left the 70 by 100 foot triangular patch of land with grass and trees as a small park/garden with a iron fence around it and a few tables to eat outside.

The construction cost was another $575,000 but the goblins brought in goblin builders from around the world to finish it as fast as they could. They had the building done by the first week in January. That included four magical elevators, heating, cooling, gas lighting, and plumbing. They also left the roof flat and ready to build up in a few decades. With the structure they built at the base they could add another 20 floors to the building. Most of the $575,000 went into the first floor of the building. Which they finished first as soon as they had a second floor. The big first floor was split up into a big 50x50 foot marble lobby with a big front desk and the four elevators, a side room for portkey landings and departures, a nice 100x150 foot cafeteria with a big kitchen, a big 100x250 foot shooting range with 35 shooting stalls and a target track pulley system covered in wards, and Harry's crown jewel, a hugely expanded 'danger room'.

The room started off as a 200x300 foot room with 15 foot ceilings. With an expansion charm they turned it into a 800x1,200 foot room with 60 foot tall ceilings. Inside the room the goblins built three city blocks worth of streets, alleys, lamp posts, apartment buildings, houses, and store fronts. The walls were huge paintings of cityscapes. The room had a magical temperature control system that could go from 115-20 degrees. There was even a magical sprinkler system and a drain system so they could make it rain or snow it the room. When the goblins were done building it they went in and started enchanting it. Hermione cast the magical ceiling charms to replicate an open air space. They recorded city sounds and pumped them into the room.

They hired friends and family of their work staff to live in the room and play the part of pedestrians. They were hired actors for $5 a day with free room and access to low cost goods. The stores inside the room sold real goods. Food, clothes, meat. All of it was purchased by B&S at rock bottom prices and sold to their workers at cost. The room was, for all intents and purposes, three city blocks of New York.

If you were black bagged and dropped in an alley in the room you would never know you were inside a room. They knew, because they tried it. They black bagged a few agent hopefuls, stunned them, portkeyed them to the room and let them wake up on their own. Each one got up and walked around the room confused. It took an average of twenty minutes walking around to figure out they were inside a room. And of the ten people they did it to six of them figured it out by walking into a wall.

The room would be where Harry separated the men from the boys. He set up each house and building for different real world situations. From crime scenes, to stash houses, to enemy strongholds. There was a small 100 seat lecture hall that acted as one of the four entranceways to the danger room.

But the danger room was not the only thing they added to the building. They added things like a big four level sub basement for parking 'horses'. Floors 2-4 were set up with lab space built to Hermione's specifications. Floor 5 was set up for gun storage and gunsmithing workshop space for Smith and his team of gunsmiths. Floor 6 was a new clinic space with more beds and better potion brewing and storage rooms. Floors 7 and 8 was office space for local investigators and file clerks. People that would meet with clients and sign them ups for contracts. The top two floors were set aside for the Agents with the top floor housing the offices for Harry, Neville, and Abby along with two dozen offices for their top level Black agents. These agents would focus more on Unspeakable work in the future but for now they would be gold shield carrying agents with license to kill if need be.

That was a deal Harry worked out with the chief of police in New York. Harry offered the service of BSSI to the budding underfunded and overworked NYPD. They would handle major theft cases for their clients, help solve murder investigations, and catch dangerous criminals for them. The NYPD got all that for free if they looked the other way when it came to the laws BSSI broke while doing their job. The chief was skeptical at first but Harry offered to take care of a few high risk bad guys for him to show him how fast they worked. He was handed five warrants for five very bad men. Harry left his office with a smirk. He walked back in with the first man a half hour later. By two o'clock Harry was done and he walked out of the office with a signed document stating anyone with a BSSI shield on their jacket was to be left alone no matter what they were doing.

The boys also went on a one day dragon hunt to gather more dragonhide for vests. They portkeyed to Paris and from there they flew to the black forest in Germany on their brooms. When they got to the forest they used magic to find some dragons. The Black forest, like the Forbidden was full of life, magical and mundane. Regular animal like mountain lions, wild boars, wolves, deer, and Moose grew huge in size with big teeth and claws for the predators and huge racks of knife blade sharp antlers for the deer and moose. The boars grew to the size of buffalo with huge foot and a half long tusks and sharp hoofs.

Then there were things like 25 foot tall mountain trolls that charged at you with tree trunks until you put them down. Graphons which looked like purple Texas longhorn bulls. They stood 8 foot tall and 12 foot long from nose to tail. Their 8 foot long horns bowed out and then curved back in and they were sharp enough to pierce a tree trunk. The good news was the forest was packed with game that was ripe for the taking, the bad news was most of it wanted to kill you. The boys shot trunks full of things that day before they even got to the dragons. They didn't stop to clean any of it. They shrank everything they shot, tossed it into a trunk, and moved on. At all times two of them would be looking out while one of them took care of the kill. When they packed a trunk full they portkeyed it back to the kitchen at Park Place.

They each carried two long guns with magical ammo. Harry had his 500 nitro express rifle with shrapnel rounds. The bullet weighed 64 grams or 2.25 ounces and it was propelled by 1,500 grains of blackpowder. It was made of magical red brass. It had a jacketed core of tungsten. On impact the red brass case exploded apart inside the animal and the core tore a huge hole out the other side of the animal. It was made to hunt big magical things like dragon, troll, and giant. It hit like a freight train and put a foot wide hole through things. He also carried his 300 win mag rifle and his Sig Sauer X-five full of 9mm hollow points. Neville carried his Winchester 1885 high wall rifle with the magical .45-90 rounds, his .300 win mag rifle, and a Desert Eagle with a whisper enchantment and an enchanted mag with 70 rounds of .50ae hollow points. Tommy had his high wall .45-90 rifle, an AK-47 with whisper enchantment and a 300 magazine, and his 1911 with 9mm hollow points.

By the time they got to their first dragon's nest set on the top of a table top mountain they filled four trunks with game. Harry flew up on his broom under his cloak and looked at the nest. When he came back he looked at Neville.

"One very large male ridgeback and three females. All of them are asleep. The females don't look like they're sitting on eggs but we'll soon find out. You got your dragon gun right?" Harry asked putting away his other rifle.

"Yeah. Are we going to see if we can get them with one head shot each?" He asked pulling out his Nitro rifle and putting his other two guns in his bag.

"Yeah. Tommy, stick to the trees and keep you high wall ready. If we miss one or they don't go down I'll act as the rabbit. I'll bring him in for a low pass, take a shot at the dragon as Neville reloads. Go for the head. This is a meat and hide hunt, we don't need to keep the head intact for a trophy. The faster we put them down the better. If we have more than one runner hide. That second dragon will pounce on you. We lost that new kid that way remember? What was his name?" Harry asked.

"Barnes, Steven Barnes, he was from America. New Jersey I think." Neville said nodding.

"What happened to Barnes?" Tommy asked.

"Chinese Fireball dropped out of the sky during a hunt and pounced on him. He cooked him with a fireball and ate him. Don't let it happen to you. If we call out two dragons, hide and if you think you're in danger portkey out. You were brave enough for one day. You don't have to die son. Leave the stupid shit to your uncle and me. We've done this dozens of times. Dragonhide doesn't grow on trees after all. Now be ready. Stay loose, and don't shoot me or you're uncle." Harry said winking at the boy as Neville and Harry took to the sky on brooms.

They flew up into the clouds under cloaks and robes to hide before they ditched those and set up their shots. Using hand gestures they each picked two dragons. Harry took his first shot at the big male dragon. The round entered his head at the back of the skull and tore the head from his body. Neville took his shot at the same time at the next largest female. The round turned her head into mist. Harry took his second shot as the two other females started waking up. The round hit her in the side of the head. She screamed as she died and Harry cringed. He heated to cause unnecessary pain when it came to dragons. They were huge majestic creatures and they deserved to go out in their sleep or to die fighting. This seemed like an unhappy medium. His thoughts were cut short a split second later however when Neville's last shot went wide and his dragon got up. In the blink of an eye she was on them. Harry slung his rifle over his shoulder and pulled out his handgun. He shot the dragon a few times but the bullets bounced off the hide. It did get her attention and soon Harry was diving out of the sky with the dragon on his ass.

"WE GOT ONE!" Neville called out.

Harry dove straight at the ground and spotted his son aiming right at him with his rifle. He waited until he reached the tree tops before trimming out. He heard a shot and a roar before he felt heat heat glanced back and saw the dragon on his ass still but it had a big ass hole in the side of her head and a very pissed off look in her eyes. Harry dove for the trees and flipped over on his broom headed back to the nest as he climbed. He saw Neville waiting at the nest with his gun up. Harry lead the dragon back on a wide turn and this time he heard three shots and a big crash. He looked back and saw the dragon down on the ground in a pile of collapsed trees. The dragon was way dead but Tommy ran up to it and shot it in the head again just for good measure.

They shrank the dragon from the size of a house to the size of a huge elephant and put it along with the other three shrunken dragons into an expanded trunk and sent it back to the apartment for the girls to take care of it. The dragons, unlike the rest of the kills had to be processed ASAP. The magical blood needed to be stored for enchantments and potions. The hide had to be cut off and tanned. The heart had to be cut out, split open and the heartstrings had to be cut out and stored in jars of blood for wand making. The venom sack where the dragon's fire came from had to be cut out and stored in a cold box. The teeth, claws, and eyes had to be stored for potions and knife making. Even the meat had to be cut free from the bones in big hunks and stored in a cold box before it started to go green. It would take the girls and all 15 butchers in the kitchen four hours to process the four dragons. Once the dragons were gone they checked to make sure there were no eggs in the nest. They found a huge twenty foot tall pile of dragon dung at the back of the nest. Harry waved at the pile and hundreds of burnt bones floated out and landed in the nest. They found 13 human skulls and it shocked Tommy to see them.

"They ate humans?" Tommy asked.

"Sure. Dragons eat anything. When we worked for the DoM we used to find skulls like this all the time. We used to hand the skulls off to the research teams and they would track the skulls back to missing persons cases and we would give closure to families. We used to do it for every creature we killed." Harry said pulling out a huge grain sack and floating the dragon dung into the sack.

"I never thought about that." Tommy said.

"Dragons, like all big predators eat thing that's lower on the food chain then them. We're just used to being higher up on that chain. But this is the reality of dragons, acromantulas, Basilisks, Manticores, and trolls. If they're not in a preserve away from humans or in a warded forest like the forbidden forest they eat humans. Sometimes they get a taste for human and then they go rampaging through a village or city. That's when we we're called in to take them down. We also did sweeps through forests like this. If we found eggs we would have sent them to the proserve in Romania." Harry said packing up the last of the dragon dung into the third bag he pulled out.

"What are we going to do with the skulls now?" Tommy asked.

"We could collect them and see if the girls can make any connections to missing persons but I doubt it's worth taking the bones out of here. At this point in time people just go missing. No one files a report and if they do we'd never be able to look them up. We'd have to go town by town with a list. We'll end up burying them in a mass grave. It's sad but it's life." Harry said.

"That sucks dad. These were people." Tommy said waving at the pile of 13 skulls.

"And a burrell is the best we can do for them. These were not the only people that came into this forest and didn't come back out. These were just the unfortunate souls that ended up dragon dinner. Think about all the things we shot today. All of those things could have killed us. Locals know to avoid these woods, especially this deep in. These were tourists, or hunters looking to hunt magical game like we did. In fact," Harry paused and held up his hand. Nothing happened for a minute and then guns started falling from the sky and landing in a pile by the bones. There were 18 long guns and 8 handguns. All of them were in a sorry state. "I summoned the guns of dead hunters. In this area." Harry said picking through the pile. There were 4 flintlock rifles, 8 percussion cap rifles, 4 double barrel shotguns, and 2 1871 mausers. There were 3 flintlock pistols, 2 cap and ball Adams revolvers, a Lemat revolver, a ornat pinfire revolver, and a really nice British Bulldog revolver with a nickel finish and ivory handles. He pulled out a canvas bag and tossed the rifles in.

"You're taking those? They're all rusty and beat up." Tommy said.

"With a few reparo spells those guns are as good as new. See." Harry picked up the bulldog and hit it with a repairo. The gun looked good as new. He dumped the five old .442 cartridges out and put the gun in his pocket.

"I didn't know we could do that with guns." Tommy said.

"You can if you're powerful enough. Now let's head to the next nest and see if we can't get a few more dragons. Maybe a few more huge deer and boars." Harry said.

"I want to get one of those Graphon heads for my wall." Tommy said.

They hunted through the black forest for another six hours and bagged another six trunks worth of game. They also bagged six more dragons. 2 more ridgebacks, 3 short snouts, and a huge Horntail that almost got Harry twice and took five shots from the dragon gun to bring it down. They also buried 84 more skulls and their bag of guns got bigger with a lot of beat up junk but Harry did find a pair of gold colt Peacemakers with pearl handles, three more winchester lever action rifles, and a pair of huge 4 bore double barrel guns. One 4 bore rifle had a nice wood stock and and dragon engravings and the other one had an ivory stock with elephant engravings. Harry couldn't wait to get ammo for the two guns and hid them away for presents.

Over the next few weeks Harry and Tommy helped Hermione and Abby make 200 horses.

The first real break they took from building BSSI happened at the end of the month. The White sisters asked for the 28th off to go see the parade and the dedication of the Statue of Liberty. Not only did they give them the day off, they gave everyone the day off, and attended the parade as well making it a family event. They portkeyed to the top of a building on fifth avenue to see the parade and when the delegation made their way to Bedloe's island they portkeyed to the family yacht docked at the warehouse and floated out close to the island with the New York crew to see the French flag fall revealing Lady Liberty's face. They had champagne and finger foods on the deck of the yacht. The four twins slept most of the time. Harry had Tommy take a bunch of pictures of the statue with both his camera and Harry's phone. When he asked why Harry smiled.

"Son one day a green rust is going to form over that whole statute and no one is going to remember it was dull copper. It's going to always be remembered as the green lady. Now let's pack it in, it's cold and it's starting to rain." Harry said walking up to Abby who was standing at the front of the ship looking up at the statue with tears in her eyes.

"I can't believe I was here for this." She said as Harry hugged her.

"I can't believe we missed the donation drive. We could have gotten your name in the paper so easy. Abigail GIbson donated $25,000 to the Lady Liberty Fund. Nice headline don't you think?" Harry said as Neville turned the ship around and they headed back to the warehouse dock.

"Mrs. Abigail Steel if you don't mind." She said with a smile.

"When are we going to make that official by the way?" Harry asked.

"How about New Year's Eve that way it will be easier to remember the date." She said.

"Good call. So we'll have been engaged for one year when we tie the knot. Any regrets? Buyer's remorse?" Harry asked with a grin.

"No, I still love you. No matter how old and out of shape you are." She said laughing as his grin dropped.

"Smart ass. That's it, I'm tossing you overboard." Harry said lifting her up over the railing making her scream.

"Harry! I was kidding!" She yelled laughing as he pulled her to his chest.

"Good." Harry said kissing her. They saw a flash and looked over and saw Tommy with his camera.

"Way to go dad." Tommy said high fiving his dad as Harry pulled him into his side.

"This was a nice day." Harry said as Susan brought the twins over.

Over the next few weeks they started gathering even more staff. They made contact with Brutus Scrimgeour. Headmaster of Hogwarts through Mrs. Coldstone the headmistress of Salem. They used the same tactics they used on Coldstone to get a list of names of good, powerful witches and wizards that graduated with a lot of O's on their NEWTs but could not find good employment. Most of them were muggleborns, or married to muggleborns, and muggles. Harry hired almost all of them. He left two names off the list and it took his sister to explain why they needed to hire them.

"Harry let's play this out. Just say for the sake of argument we hire Percival Dumbledore, we give him a good job as a potions brewer working in our New York office for a good wage. We hire his wife as an assistant to him for a good wage. We give them a huge apartment in the building we just planned out in New Jersey. That means he's living in America with his family. That means his kids grow up in America. His daughter is never assaulted by muggle kids in London at a young age. He doesn't kill the little shits and end up in Azkaban where he dies in prison. Little Albus doesn't grow up poor taking care of his mother, brother, and special needs sister. He never meets Grindelwald. They don't fight killing his sister. He doesn't become a teacher at Hogwarts. He doesn't learn how to game the system full of Pureblood fools. He never ascends to power. He can't control history. He becomes a well dressed potions maker in New York where we find him a nice boy to settle down with. We control his life the way he controlled yours. All it takes is giving a slightly powerful above average potions brewer and his muggleborn wife jobs in our company." Hermione explained.

"And if little albus still turns out to be a manipulative little shitty kid?" Harry asked.

"Then he has an accident. People have accidents all the time, you made people have accidents your whole career as an Unspeakable. He gets hit by a train, drowns in the bathtub, a brick falls off a building and hits him in the head as he walks down the street. Shit happens. We move on and we help the Dumbledore family mourn the loss of their oldest son." Hermione said with a shrug.

"Cold, I like it. I will be watching that boy like a hawk as he grows up. If I see one sign he's a dark little shit he's gone." Harry said.

"You can do as you like. We're also going to have one of the families that work for us adopt a little boy named Garrett. He's going to be born in a few months. His dark leaning parents are going to die in a house fire. I'm sure you remember how to stage one of those right?" She asked.

"You give me a date and time and it's done. I'm guessing a boy named Tom is going to get the same treatment?" Harry asked.

"If you want, I figured on just killed the Gaunt family all together they're a bunch of inbred dark freaks. We can also start cutting family lines now if you would like or we can do it later. With a few less dark families running around in the UK we can secure our family lines better. Say Abraxas Malfoy was to die in a mugging before he could father Lucius. Or say Malcolm Parkinson were to drown in his bathtub. Or say Burgan and Bruks were to catch fire with both men inside. A magical fire spreads quickly and that shop is full of dark objects that would make the fire worse. On the flip side of that same coin we can give aid in the form of good fortune and friendship to families like the Potters, the Longbottoms, the Bones', and the Abbots." She said.

"Why the sudden change of heart? I thought you wanted to leave the time stream alone as much as possible." He asked.

"I do for the world but Magical Britain is the worst. We left the world alone for the most part over the last year. But now that we started looking to recruit people from Hogwarts it's opening up old wounds. We couldn't change the way the Purebloods acted in our time and that was after decades of infighting and wars. Maybe if we cut them off at the knees we can do better this time. The Malfoy's, Nott's, Macnair's, Lestrange's Parkinson's, Bolstrode's, Crabb's, Gole's, Crabtree's, and Crow's need to go. We don't have to kill them all and we don't have to do it at once, but if we know they're committing crimes like muggle hunting and the ministry is turning a blind eye then we need to take them out. If they have small children we'll make sure the family fortune and the children get passed to a light family. After all, all pure blood families are connected by blood." Hermione said.

"Sounds like a plan. For now we need to start hiring staff and having our work staff try out for the agent jobs. We have to start doing that soon. I want to spend a few weeks having them learn the equipment and the spells needed to do the job. Is there anyone we know will make it past the try outs?" Harry asked.

"Brick Baker the head of the Savannah warehouse is your best bet. He's huge, knows how to fight and shoot. What he lacks in spells knowledge he makes up for with power. He's on the mage level. Then you have Steven Bones, he's Susan's great grandfather. He did three years in the DMLE before he was fired after he married a Muggleborn witch, Sarah Carter, five years ago. He's been working dock security and trying to get a job with the London police department. He's unhappy and he has three young kids to feed. There's also Richard Parkinson." She said before Harry cut her off.

"I thought you said we should kill off the Parkinson line?" Harry asked.

"We should, aside from Richard. He's best friends with Steven, and newly married to Sarah Carter's Muggle sister Ginny, his family is trying to disown him as we speak. He works at a potions shop in the dodgy end of Diagon alley." She said.

"So that's three? We need a hell of a lot more than three." Harry said.

"I know, we need about three dozen agents, and another dozen or so Black level agents, but these three are a lock. The rest we have to find through try outs." Hermione said.

The month of November was full of job interviews, staff hirings, shopping trips, gathering equipment, buying up real estate, and furnishing the office building starting with the danger room as it was being finished. It was also filled with taking care of the four twins, keeping up with their other three companies, and trying to stay on top of life for the girls.

Also in November Harry bought shity buildings in the East Village and Tribeca areas of Manhattan. He had the buildings torn down and nice four floor apartment buildings and townhouses built. All of it cost him $178,000 when it was alls done in January. But they added more than enough apartments to house their newly expanded work staff. He also bought land in Hoboken New Jersey for a ridiculously cheap price. Who wanted to take the ferry across the Hudson river to work every day right? Harry knew the Holland tunnel would be opened in the 20's and the ten apartment buildings he had built for $65,000 would be worth a hell of a lot more.

The month of November also brought with it agent testing. Harry had 183 applicants. They were all going to stay with the company no matter if they made it past tryouts or not. These were the cream of the crop. The best of the best. They would have all gotten black letters in the future. The majority were from Salem or Hogwarts with only a few exceptions. In those cases they were future powerhouses and Hermione recruited them from all over the world. For the most part they were young men and women between 19-35, with a group average of 22. If they didn't make it this time they would have jobs in the company and they would take classes and practice for the next round of testing.

Harry started them all off with easy tasks. Things like shooting drills, simple spell dueling, dodging drills, puzzle solving, curse breaking, and broom riding drills. After a few days he had cut the group down to 96. Then Neville came in, handed them all cotton pants and shirts, and beat their asses. For three days he had them fight each other with knives, and fists. In the end everyone was sore and the group was now down to 54.

With the group down to 54 they moved on to real agent training in the danger room the next day. Harry handed out a small black leather carpet bag to each of them. Inside was a set of dragonhide over and under vests, a shoulder rig with two holsters, a horse, a small black box, a small jewelry box, and three black suits. For the men the suit was a mix of western style and the english cut. The black suit had a ¾ length black jacket, a dark red silk waistcoat, white shirt with straight collar, black silk ascot, a bowler hat or wide brimmed hat, riding boots, and a top coat. For the women the suit was more of a riding habit consisting of a long ankle length light weight black wool skirt with a slit up the front and with black wool pants underneath, white high neck shirt with a silver collar button, a dark red waist coat that was form fitting with boning and support cups like a corset, black riding boots, a calf length tapered out top coat made of thin wool, a small bowler hat, and a small with brimmed hat.

They were each handed a wood case. Inside was a Winchester carbine rifle with a 16 inch barrel in .38 lc with an extended mag tube that held 70 rounds, a Lemat revolver in .38lc and 20 gauge shotshell with a nickel finish and ivory handles, a colt lightning revolver with a 3 ½ inch barrel in nickel with ivory handles, and a second colt lightning with smaller handle, a shaved off hammer spur and a 1 ½ inch barrel. There was also a knife roll with knives of varying sizes, a leather case with two dozen potions in corked test tubes, and a shrunken ammo crate with 2,000 rounds of .38lc and 500 brass shotgun shells.

"As of right now, you are all agents of BSSI, your pay is bumped up to $25 a day and every time you walk into a situation where you could get shot at you will receive a hazard pay bonus for that day of $5. Just remember, $1,825 might seem like a lot in bonus money in a year but remember, your death benefits plan only pays out $2,500 to your family for five years in the event of you getting killed on the job. You're worth more to your loved ones alive then dead. Nothing is worth dying over, and if it is then we would not send you. We would send a black shield. What is a black shield? It's what we're going to spend the next three weeks of training finding out. But to sum it up, a black shield will designate black level agents. They will be paid $45 a day and there is no hazard pay, it's built into your salary because you will be shot at, at least three times a week. You will act as backup when an agent runs into trouble. Your job is to do the missions too dangerous for the average agent to do. You're the best of the best. Over the next three weeks we are going to find the black level agents in this group. If you think you have what it takes then you don't have it. You don't know what we're going to throw at you and the confidence you have that makes you think you can handle it will get you killed. This is not a joke. We gave you dragonhide vests and guns for a reason. Agents of BSSI will handle things like recovery of stolen property, protection and transportation of goods and/or people, and the capturing wanted criminals that are too dangerous for the local cops to handle. In the future I want this company to handle everything from: someone stole my grandmother's silver ring, to the protection of the president." Harry said getting a lot of nodding heads.

"Now head into the locker rooms and change into your agent suits and we will explain what all the pockets do, men you're in the locker room to the right and ladies you have the room on the left. Don't bother with anything else, we'll explain where everything goes." Harry said.

When they all came out Harry lead them into the danger room class room.

"Okay, as you can see I'm wearing the same suit you guys are. Ladies you're suits have the same pockets too but they also have this little trick. If you will stand up." He said pointing to the woman in the front row. When she was standing next to him he continued. "Inside your long jacket and on your waist you will find two silver buttons that don't got to anything. They activate your clothing charms." He said showing off the buttons. When she put her thumb on the buttons her skirt shrank into her black belt and her jacket shrank to mid thigh leaving her in a modern day men's suit. "As you can see this gives you more maneuverability and less things to get hung up on in a fight. In this room the first thing you should do is hit those two buttons. Now follow along as I go over the rest of your gear. I'm going to show you how this all goes on. You can all put on the shoulder rig for now but don't add any of your guns or live ammo yet." Harry said taking off his jacket and showing them how to put the shoulder rig on and clip it to their belts.

"Now as you can see on the back of the holsters are two sheaths. Your agent's sidearm goes into the holster across from your main shooting hand and your secondary handgun, that's this colt with the three inch barrel goes in the other side." He said adding the guns to his rig.

"In the sheath with your sidearm you tuck your wand into it. The other sheath will hold a knife of your choosing. I'm a fan of this five inch drop point knife but you have a half dozen fixed blade knives to choose from in your knife roll. Now that the shoulder rig is all decked out I'll pull on my jacket. Now as you can see there are a bunch of pockets on the inside as well as the outside. We'll start with the outside three. Your pocket colt goes in your right pocket. The six speed loaders go in this left pocket. This breast pocket holds your gold BSSI shield. Now there are four inside pockets. We'll start on the left. Your inner breast pocket works like a shot shell caddy. There are a set of rails and a spring inside that hold 25 shotgun shells for your agent's revolver. Your lower left hand pocket is an expanded pouch that holds four boxes of ammo. All of your guns take 38 colt. That's 200 extra rounds on you at all times. On the right side, the breast pocket is a leather lined sheath for another knife of your choosing. The lower right side pocket holds the potion's case. Inside you have 6 healing tonics, 4 blood replenishing potions, and 2 pepper up potions. Any questions?" He asked looking at the class.

"Good, now let's move onto the jewelry box. Inside you have four things. A gold card holder for your portkeys, a gold pocket watch that can make calls to eleven other watches and the main emergency line by rolling the dial to a preset name and clicking the button. Lastly you have two gold pens. They work like magical pens but if you bend back the clip it with portkey you to the other pen. The idea being you would keep one with you and leave one in your office. So you can get back to your office faster after a mission is complete. Again, any questions? Good."

"The last thing I wanted to talk to you about was this little black match box. Inside is a supply kit for long missions. You tap it with your wand to expand it." He said setting the match box on the table and taping it. It expanded to the size of a small trunk. "Inside is a few things but there is room in here for extra ammo, your long guns, some clothes, and anything else you find helpful to carry with you. The box comes with a small magical tent with a bedroom, bathroom, and small kitchen. You also have a magical everfull canteen with fresh clean cold drinking water. A heavy leather duster coat, gloves, and a fur hat in this bag marked coldgear. Inside this lunch pail is a magical warm beverage flask, and ten prepackaged meals in bags. Each meal has a cup of soup or stew, a meat sandwich or meat pie, a bottle of Coke, and a candy bar. If you burn through your meals the cafeteria in this building will make you more. All you have to do is heat it with a warming charm and eat. It's all good food and it will last for two year inside the lunch pail." Harry said putting all the things back

"Now let's talk about the over vest. If you ever feel like you might walk into a situation where you might get shot take the half a minute it take to pull on your vest. If you're in a situation where you're getting shot at. Fall back to a safe spot and try to get your vest on. The thin vest you have on under your shirt will stop a bullet, but it has no cushioning charms. You will feel the full impact of the bullets that hit you. Also if you get hit with a high powered rifle round, an enchanted round, or an enchanted blade it will go through. This thicker vest will stop anything, and I mean anything. It will also soften the blow of the impact. Your hat is also lined with a steel plate, that's why it's so heavy, in a gunfight try to keep your hat on." Harry said.

He then pulled out a red trunk and a yellow trunk and set them on the table. He opened the red trunk and they saw shrunken red cases. He pulled a case out expanded it and showed them ten Colt Lightning revolvers with red handles inside. He pulled a red crate out of the trunk and showed them a bullet with a red tip.

"These are paint maker rounds. They come in yellow and red, you will use red and your enemies will use yellow. The red paint markers hit just hard enough to leave a paint mark. The yellow rounds hit hard enough to leave huge welts and break small bones. If you get shot it's going to hurt, very bad. I'm hoping that if you get shot enough in here you'll be more aware out there. I do not want to pay death benefits to your next of kin. The only guns that go into that room are these paint guns. The first person to use a real gun in that room will be shot by me. I am not fucking with you. There are people that live in this room as you well know. Some of them might be your family. You can not just walk into this room and start shooting real bullets. There is a structured classroom time with specific ops planned out each day. Any questions?"

"Can we schedule more ops for training?" Steven Bones asked, and Harry smiled.

"There will be times to schedule more ops, but for now you're going to be so drained when I'm done with you you're not going to want any more ops. Also from now on, everyday from 2pm to 3pm there will be a training op going on that you can sign up for. Everyday it will be something different. Any more questions?" Harry asked. When he got no questions he moved on.

"Okay, today's op is call kill street. Outside this door is main street. It's three blocks long. In the middle of main street about 600 feet away is a red button. As soon as you walk out of this door the clock starts. All you have to do is hit the button to stop the clock. Best time wins a bottle of Highland Park 25 year old scotch. It's a $25 bottle of scotch from my private collection. But there's a catch, there are 30 men between you and the button. They are hiding in doorways, behind carriages, in alleys, and around corners. There are also 15 noncombatants. All 45 men are dressed the same in B&S brand shirts and trousers, the only way to know if they are bad guys is the gun in their hands. Every time you get shot, I'm adding time, if you shoot a civilian you're done. You will be equipped with your Agent's revolver, that's the Lemat and your backup gun, that's the three inch colt lighting. You will have 5 speed loaders and 40 loose rounds in your pocket. That's 15 loaded rounds, 45 quick load rounds, and 40 loose rounds. For those keeping track that's 100 rounds to score two chest shots on 30 men. The lights are all on and it's a pleasant 65 degrees in the room. I am giving you all the advantages here. I ran this test while you were changing. My time was 2:10. I scored two hits on each man and I didn't touch the loose rounds in my pocket. That means I didn't miss. As you can see I was not hit either. That's your goal. Brick, you're up first. Com up here and get your guns and rounds." Harry said calling the big man up.

The big man got his guns, speed loaders, and loose rounds. He put on his bowler hat, pulled his sidearm, and walked through the door. His eyes were wide and alert as they scanned the 20 foot wide cobblestone street lined with shops and apartment buildings. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye, his gun came up and he saw a man with a colt in his hand. He shot him twice in the chest. The gun barked and bucked in his hand like he fired a regular round but two red spots appeared on the bad guy's chest. He saw a man pop out of a doorway with a gun and he popped him twice. He tracked a man running across the street headed for an alley but he didn't have a gun. But he did see a guy behind a carriage with a gun, two shots but he missed once so he shot again as the man fell down. And so he went down the street. Two minutes later when he hit the button Neville called down to him from the rooftop of an apartment building in line with the red button. There was a screen he was standing behind during the test that made him invisible to Brick but now that he was right in front of him he could see.

"2:31, 71 rounds, and no yellow paint on you. Good job, come up here and you can watch the next one! Good job guys! Reset to one!" He called out and everyone went back to their places. Neville waved at the street with his wand and the red dots vanished as Brick came to stand next to him. "You did really good for your first kill box test. Now let's see how the next guys does." Neville said patting the big man on the back. From their place they could see the next person come through the door. It was Steven Bones who would go on to win the bottle of scotch.

It took just under three hours to get through everyone. There were some standouts like Steven and then there were trigger happy fools that shot everything like Lester Crump who shot 85 rounds before shooting an unarmed man. He was out, as were the seven other people that shot unarmed men. They would be agents but they were ranked number 54-46 and they would be assigned to cases with a very low chance of having to draw a weapon and if they didn't get their shit together by the end of this training period they would be dropped as agents and asked to try again. Harry was not taking any chances. He needed to trust that his agents would be able to handle their shit out in the real world. The bottom third of the list had to act like seasoned detectives. The next third had to act like government agents. The top third had to act like swat guys and Secret Service guys. His Black level agents were expected to be James Bond with magic. Harry took note of the top ten, they looked like they were going to be his black level agents, but this was the first test, and an easy one. As things got harder he expected the order to shift but as of right now he had his top ten list:

1) Steven (Bones) Bones 2:25, 68 rounds.

2) Richard (Rick) Parkinson 2:26, 69 rounds.

3) Franklin (Frank) Baker 2:26, 72 rounds.

4) Julius (Morgan) Morgan 2:28, 73 rounds.

5) Maurice (Moe) Patterson 2:29, 73 rounds.

6) Herbert (Book) Booker 2:29, 73 rounds.

7) Brick (Brick) Baker 2:31, 71 rounds.

8) Samantha (Sam) Stone 2:33, 65 rounds.

9) Ira (Ira) Roth 2:34, 75 rounds.

10) Catherine (Cat) Smith 2:36, 69 rounds.

Of the top ten Harry knew he had to keep his eye on Sam, she was a good shot, steady with revolver, but better with a rifle. She was a tall thin woman with cold black hair in a bun, delicate features, but a butch attitude. She smoked cigars, told dirty jokes, swore like a sailor, and from the way she was looking at Cat he knew she like them tall and blonde just like he did. He smirked, gave her the thumbs up, and nodded to her when she saw he caught her looking. He would train her on rifles and have her act as his sniper.

Over the next three weeks until the last week of december they met five days a week at 9am. Harry did some classroom teaching in the lecture hall and the danger room for three hours. He covered things like tracking spells, the best way to take a house by stealth, how to double apparate to get a vantage point on a landing zone by popping into the air a few hundred feet over a target location to see whats it looks like from a bird's eye view so you could find a place to pop to inside the location. They broke for lunch at noon for one hour. They spent an hour and a half at the range from 1pm to 2:30pm. They then headed back to the classroom to set up the op. It took a few hours to run everyone through the op, and then they did a post mortem after that ended at around 7pm. Every day Harry cut two or three people from his list until they were down to ten, and they were the ten Harry picked from the start. As he pushed them they got stronger. He gave them a few weeks off and told them to be ready the second week in January.


	11. Chapter 11

While Harry and Neville were playing teacher in December the girls were getting the house ready for Christmas, buying gifts, planning Harry and Abby's wedding, and keeping track of things going on at the B&S empire. They also started training Margaret, David, and Tommy to take over the shipping company, the clothing company and the meat company. They would be division heads and with the title bump came a huge pay bump from $15 a day to $25,000 a year, a bigger apartment, and a personal staff to help them run things for Margaret and David. Tommy got $25,000 and a staff to handle the day to day operations so he could focus on the big issues. It was a big job for a twelve year old but the fact that he had been doing the job since the two sets of twins were born showed that with some help he could run the whole very small division.

Right off the bat the three excelled and started making changes to the companies that brought a bump in profits. Knowing how the sausage is made and then getting a chance to make it yourself had a huge advantage. Yet each had their own style of achieving growth in their division.

Margaret's ideas were all expansion based. She met with the heads of major banks and asked them how much it cost them to ship money and gold across the country on armored trains and stagecoaches. She then offered to do it for half the price and gave each bank ten free shipments to show off the quality of their service. They now ran money, gold, and documents for Bank of New York, Citibank, PNC Bank, Fifth third bank, and Goldman Sachs. It was 3 million dollars in extra business each years and she did it in her first few weeks of running the division. At first both the girls and Margaret were weary of how bank owners would react to taking meetings with a woman, but when she walked in with two very armed BSSI Agents and handed them a business card that read 'B&S Shipping, General Manager.' the men tended to sit up and listen. If they didn't they went on B&S's shit list and they lost business. A few banks did that, then there was Wells Fargo.

Margaret was laughed out of the office and when Neville met with them he too was laughed out of the office. Wells Fargo thought their stagecoaches were safe. Of course when all the other bank's stopped using stagecoaches and trains it meant the only ones doing it we're Wells Fargo making them a huge target. It didn't help that it was Harry and Neville robbing the stagecoaches. That was a fun two weeks in January for the boys. They used glamours, cheap beat up guns, and stolen information on the high priority stagecoach routes to attack the stagecoaches. They would ride up to the back of one on their horses, hops on, toss a smoke bomb filled with a tear gas concoction made by Hermione inside, stun the drivers and stop the stagecoach. When the guys inside ran out coughing and puking they would take their guns, the strong box full of gold or money, and let them go. They did it to ten shipments over two weeks before they stopped. All together they stole $2,434,000 in cash, coin, and gold. They laundered it through the bank and handed it out to charities, hospitals, homeless shelters, and orphanages. It was kind of a rob from the jerks and give to the poor.

David was more organisational in his moves. In his first few weeks on the job he came to Hermione with an idea. Buying colored fabrics cost more than plain undyed raw fabrics. A vat of color change potion cost pennies to make and no real potions making skill to brew. Also they could make any color they wanted. This little change saved thousands of dollars a year and they could offer garments in colors that were hard to make. They also changed the way they made men's and women's clothing. They used to switch from making men's clothing one week to making women's clothing the next week before going back to men's clothing. Instead all two hundred seamstresses were split up into teams to make one kind of article of clothing. A hand full of seamstresses made men's shirts everyday, a handful made women's shirts. Some made men's slacks. Others made women's skirts. Since it was all made from undyed raw cloth they only had to deal with sizing. All the clothes then went to a vat tank and were dyed the color of the day. From there they were bagged up 100 piece to a bag. Then the bags were boxed up, the boxes were shrank down to the size of small cubes, and stock piled in a small room that was magically expanded. When an order came in the four girls that worked in the room boxed up orders and when they were shipped out. The crates were expanded before they were handed off to store owners. This system cut down on errors, and time which saved hundreds of thousands of dollars a year.

Tommy expanded and streamlined at the same time. He had his mom and aunt help him hire more hunters to gather more exotic African animals like elephant, wild boar, gazelle, and water buffalo which cost very little to hunt but sold for a lot to people wanting to try new things. He also added sheep to the farm in Texas. It was only 250 sheep to start but it would be a good test. The wool from the sheep could be used in the clothing factory and Lamb chops sold at a good price if raised on a the same grass clippings the cows were raised on. His two changes brought in an estimated few hundred thousand dollars and he earned himself a hunting trip to Africa for "work purposes" every week which made the girls laugh.

With the changes in management the family could spend the next year getting BSSI off the ground and running. Once it was up they were done expanding for now. BSSI would be the last company they made for the next few decades they hoped. It was also where they would spend most of their time. Harry and Neville would be in charge of the agents and missions. Hermione would head up the R&D side. Lastly Abby would run the day to day operations of the company with the her assistant, David's older brother Marcus, playing the part of her boss if they ran into a client that wouldn't deal with a woman.

Marcus, like David was a tall good looking man that fit a suit well, and like his brother he was a master at staying on task. But unlike David, Marcus was a squib that served in the Army and fought in the Apache wars, and had the scars to prove it. Including the scar that ran down his right cheek to his neck. Marcus was a man you would trust your safety to, and had he been a wizard and not a squib Harry would have snatched him up for his agent's pool. As it was Marcus shared a big office with Abby and depending on who they met with he played the boss or she did. At first Harry was leery of his wife spending so much time with the good looking younger man. Then he met Marcus' wife Maria. She was Mexican, white, and Apache mixed and she was beautiful. In fact she looked like a disney princess with long dark hair, big brown eyes, thin delicate features, and full lips. They loved each other and she tended to his every need. After meeting her Harry never thought twice about his wife spending time with Marcus.

As they raced to the end of the year everyone was so busy they barely had time to eat meals together. The house was a mess, the twins were finally sleeping through the night, and plans for the wedding were in full swing.

In the last week of December the whole family scrambled to get everything ready for Christmas. They brought the tree down from the roof garden where it spent the last year in the corner in it's big pot being tended to by the gardiner. They spent the night decorating the tree with glass bulbs and lights as they watched White Christmas. When the tree was all set they all started stacking gifts under it. The pile was huge and Harry and Neville still had to do the bulk of their shopping.

Harry went with Tommy to work on Monday. He followed him to his small office next to the expanded kitchen on the ground floor of Park place. Harry watched his boy talk to his assistant Jenny about the issues of the day and then he followed him around as he worked. Tommy met with the meat man at the New York warehouse about orders being behind a bit and he talked about preparing for the holidays. After that he portkeyed to Texas and talked to the head rancher about the huge order of Beef that was going to come through in the next few days. When they were all done they portkeyed to a field where a tent was set up in the deep snow next to a lake. They spotted a few hunters in the field with pump action shotguns and Tommy greeted them with a smile and a shrunken trunk.

"I got coffee, bacon, fresh baked bread, eggs and a dozen steaks. I also got a crate of brass bird shells and I can take the spent shells back with me. Dad this is the division I just added a month ago. Meet Jim, Bob, and Red Carter. These three brothers are our mobile bird team. Next season we're going to look into raising geese and ducks in a huge barn but until I look into that with Aunt Mia this is the way we're going to keep up with the bird orders. These three have migrated with the flocks of birds south. So far they've bagged a few dozen trunk loads of geese and ducks. I figured we could join them for a bit before lunch and see if we can get a few geese for the Christmas parties." Tommy said pulling out his shrunken Mummy bag and unrolling it.

"That sounds great, I wish I had my bag…" He trailed off as Tommy handed him his shrunken bag.

"I grabbed it from the study this morning." Tommy said putting the two halves of his Winchester 97 12 gauge shotgun together.

"You're the best son a guy could ask for." Harry said unrolling his bag and putting together his Winchester model 1912 in 12 gauge. He grabbed the bandoleer of brass shell full of birdshot and strapped it across his chest. He grabbed a box of shells out of the bag and loaded the magazine tube and passed it to Tommy.

"Well I wanted us to do this, it's been awhile since we had a chance to hang out." Tommy said slinging the bandoler over his chest and putting away his bag.

The two spent a few hours shooting at birds and talking about bullshit. It was the best three hours they spent together in the last six weeks and when they portkeyed back to Park Place they had a trunk full of birds. He handed the trunk off to the Jon Philp and told him they were for the parties. It was going to be insane this year with the number of employees they had. The two Steel men had lunch in the apartment with the whole family and after lunch they had Neville tag along for the rest of the day. They portkeyed to the Kansas deer farm and they spent three hours collecting deer, Moose, and elk for the holiday rush. At the end of the hunt Max killed 60 rabbits to fill an order. That night the boys told war stories of their hunt over dinner. Harry smiled so much that day his jaw hurt.

Over the next few days Harry did some extra shopping, and handled a few last minute projects. He didn't have to hand out bonuses like he did last year. With so many employees he just had the goblins tack on the bonus to the first week in December paycheck. $5 a day employees got $400. If you made $6 you got $450. $10 workers got $750. $11 workers got $800. $15 workers got $1,000 and a nice personal gift. The Agents who were the only ones that made $25 got $1,500 and a ring that monitored your health and portkeyed you back to the office to the hospital floor lobby if you got too hurt. His black level agents got $2,500, the ring, and a card telling them he owed them a gun.

On the 22rd of December he closed down the company at noon until the 26th. They cleared out the New York warehouse for the first of three Christmas parties to be held over the next three days. Then they conjured tables, chairs, white table clothes, plates, flatware, and stemware. The Park Place staff came in and prepped for the party. They opened the doors three and the people that worked for the shipping company started arriving with their families. The Park Place staff served champagne, beer, and wine as people talked and socialized. They had a piano player playing a grand piano and a ten person choir singing Christmas carols.

Neville and Hermione did a headcount and set up the bag and Harry and Abby got to play Mr, and Mrs. Claus. Abby gathered the children and read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas' then Harry came out in the red suit and got to hand out gifts. Again the kids under 5 got stuffed animals. The 6-9 year olds girls got dolls. The 6-9 year olds got modified colt army cap and ball guns with plugged barrel and cylinder that worked like a cap gun. The 10-12 year olds girls got small black leather handbags with leather bound diaries and gold pens. The 10-12 boys and every other kid between 13-15 got custom ordered Winchester 1873 rifles in .22 short with short 18 inch barrels, brass actions, factory engravings, and a brass B&S logo medallion in the pistol grip sporting red stained wood stock.

The rifles were Smith's idea. When they worked with Winchester to make the custom Winchester 1886 BSSI carbines in .38lc WInchester gave them the rifles for $20 each instead of the list price of $40 because they ordered 200 guns. The Winchester 1873 in .22 short sold for $25. Harry put in an order for 2,500 with the specs he wanted. Winchester gave him the guns for $15. The whole order came to $37,500, Harry tossed in the extra $2,500 for wood cases and leather slings. Smith and his team added five boxes of .22 short to the cases and added red ribbons and bows before shrinking the cases and stacking them in a box. The rifles were so nice that the adults were eyeing them. As they sat down for dinner. When dinner was over and the dancing started up a bunch of people approached them about the rifles. Harry shared a smirk with Neville and Tommy and Hermione rolled her eyes. She questioned them making such a big order of guns. Now they could sell the extras to their workers for a very slim profit margin.

At 9pm they called it a night and sent every family home with a small wood box with a bottle of Highland Park 15 year old, a bottle of good red wine, a wheel of wax dipped sharp cheddar cheese, and a few dried links of deer and elk sausage. At the bottom of the box was a card and a $50 gold coin.

The next day, the 23rd, they repeated the party for the the Clothing company and the meat company. Neville and Hermione got to play santa and again the little brass rifles were a huge hit. On Christmas eve they did it again for BSSI. During the party Harry gathered his black agents off to a corner and showed them the undercover rig he wore at all times. He then handed each of them a rig with two holsters. One holter for an extra Colt Lightning revolver, and the other holster for a 9mm handgun from the collection Harry brought back with him. This gun would be for 'last ditch, I'm pinned down and help isn't coming fast enough, I might die' situations. As much as possible Harry wanted them to use the guns of the time period, but in a shit hits the fan situation he wanted them to have a reliable, hard hitting, expanded magazine hand cannon they could pull out. In January when they came back from break they would spend a day finding a gun that fit them and then they would get it enchanted for them in house.

Like last year the extra toys aside from the guns went to orphanages in major cities with B&S Warehouses along with $1,000 in $50 gold coins. All in all the Christmas parties, charity, and holiday bonuses came to just under $120,000 which was just about the profits they pulled in everyday with all the divisions running at full capacity. And BSSI would net them even more. They were looking at making about 45 million dollars in 1887. Which was the equivalent of about 4 billion dollars in 2016.

Christmas morning Tommy was the first one up at seven, quickly followed by his dad and uncle, and the girls stumbled in at eight with a baby in each arm. When they came in they saw Tommy playing with a B&S winchester rifle as the boys watched Elf and drank coffee.

"I see you waited for us to start." Abby said hugging Tommy as she sat next to Harry on the chair.

"He asked to buy one three days ago and I told him I gave him one. He knew about it and I figured it was fine to open it. Now where are the sisters?" Harry asked.

"If they're smart they're sleeping." Hermione said looking bleary eyed.

"Well they're family so go get them son." Harry said.

"Right dad." Tommy said slinging his rifle over his shoulder as he stood up.

"Son, maybe leave the gun. They still get nervous around them which is going to make the gifts I got them interesting." Harry said with a smirk.

"Good call dad. And I'm trying to get Penny more used to it." Tommy said setting his rifle down and rushing out of the room. He never saw the smirks on his family's faces.

Tommy lead Susan and Penny into the living room a few minutes later. Both girls were dressed in big bath robes over their nightgowns and slippers. They looked disheveled and tired.

"Sorry, we didn't know we were to be up this early, we're very inappropriately dressed." Susan said.

"Nonsense! You're family. No come sit down, we're going to open presents and you have a stack under there as well." Harry said expanding the couch so they could all fit.

"Tommy you're up." Abby said.

"Really?" Tommy asked standing up.

"Until your little brother Bobby can read it's you kid." Abby said setting the two babies into a crib in the corner of the room.

"Right, so like two more years?" Tommy asked going to the big pile.

"More like four." Abby said.

"I hope. If they take after me they'll be dumb as a box of rocks." Harry said.

"Hey! Don't talk about my brother and sister like that." Tommy said handing out gifts with a smirk.

"Best big brother a kid could ask for." Abby said.

Everyone got the standard clothes, shoes, soaps, chocolates, and small bits of jewellery. Abby made everyone wallets and handbags for Hermione and the sisters. She also made leather jackets for Neville, Harry and Tommy. She made long fur coats and hats for the sisters. Harry got both sets of twins rocking horses that looked like real poneys. The rocker bases came off and the horses acted like the marble horses they used. Neville got the kids gold rattles with their names engraved on the handles and gold baby spoons with rubber tips for when they started eating real food. Abby and Hermione got a black carriage from their husbands so they didn't have to ride side saddle. The inside of the carriage was built like a Rolls Royce with black soft supple leather and polished wood. There was even a tray table with a tea set and bottles of scotch and wine. Even the driver's seat had a warming charm on it. It was pulled by two marble horses and the whole thing shrank down to the size of a match box toy.

The girls got Harry and Neville a joint gift as well. Harry got a box and Neville got a poster tube. Inside the box was a glass Highland Park bottle, but it was full of an odd yellowish liquid. The label said B&S Oil. Under that was a label that said 'first refined liter November 29, 1886.'

"Is this? You didn't!" Harry said sniffing at the cap. It smelled like unleaded.

"We own 27 miles of future prime oil producing fields in Texas. We have a small magical refinery that runs itself for the most part. Every day the refinery makes thousands of gallons of diesel, heating oil, jet fuel, butane, and asphalt tar and I can see I lost you so I'll just get to the good part. The refinery makes just over 25,000 gallons of gasoline a day. We fill a 100,000 liter tank everyday. Now before we came up with this plan to open a refinery we knew the Goblins were months of not weeks away from figuring out we're not from this time so Abby and I talked it out. We went to Blood Letter and we swore him to secrecy. We told him we're from the future and he didn't blink. Turns out that while we thought they might figure us out they've suspected since last year. Ragnok met with us and we told him where and when we're from, in exchange for stock tips and places to avoid on certain dates they were willing to go in with us as partners on the refinery. We showed him the map of land we needed, and I worked with them on the design of the refinery. As of now we're storing hundreds of thousands of gallons of gas, fuel, and petrol chemicals a day. We made a deal with Standard oil to take the heating oil off our hands at a good price, and through the goblins we met with Dow and we sold them the runoff by product for a good price. With the two deals in place we're running the refinery for free and we can keep it running until the well dries up. But we're using magical extraction so we've got decades of not longer. As it is now we're storing fuel tanks in a temperature controlled vault at the bank. When the oil boom hits in its fervor in a few decades we'll 'open' B&S Oil officially. Neville open your gift." Hermione said with a big grin.

Neville opened the poster tube and saw a few blueprint pages. The top page was a huge blown up poster of a small poster Harry had in his cube. It was a top down map of the Isle of Man Time Trial map nesting all of the great race tracks from around the world. The next page was a top down view of the Nurburgring. Nested inside the huge track was the Le Mans circuit, Spa, Road America, Sebring raceway, SIlverstone, and Monza. Nested inside the Le Mans Circuit was Circuit de Barcelona, Watkins Glen, Yas Marina, Road Atlanta. And finally Brands hatch and Laguna Seca were nested inside of Spa. all of the tracks had roads that connected them together. On the next page was a blueprint of the Nurburgring with images of turns printed on the page showing elevation drops.

"How?" Neville asked pointing to the images.

"Well it's really a matter of playing with the shapes and fitting things together like a puzzle. As for the images they are screen grabs from Harry's racing game off the Xbox ONE. If you'll notice all the tracks are in the Forza games. Using screen grabs and some guesstimates we have a good layout if you'll turn to the next page." Hermione said. The next page was a side view of a flat top square mountain that was 200 feet tall. Carved around the mountain was the Nurburgring. And then carved into the center were the other tracks.

"My god, this is going to cost us millions." Neville said.

"Not really, the goblins say the land will cost about $35,000. We're going to build this in Nevada were the land is cheap and deserted. Then the construction costs are going to run about $850,000. Warding the area around the mountain will cost another $25,000. Altogether were looking at $875,000. Or about 68 days worth of our profits for this year. However, as the goblins are building this we're going to have a team of wizards mining a few more gold and silver mines in the desert. These are trusted wizards we've vetted and that have worked for our company for over a year. They will bring us the ore and we'll turn it into bricks then we'll split the bricks with them 85/15. With the five mines we've located we're looking at 500-800 gold bricks. That's another 4.25 million in gold for us on the low end bringing our reserve up to 1,850 gold bricks. That's 18.5 million in reserve at today's prices. Not to mention all the silver. We're looking at about 1,000-1,500 silver bars. That's 3.4 million in silver to add to our reserve of 12.5 million we have in the vault. We're looking at a reserve of 34.4 million. The equivalent of about 3.1 billion in our time. This is all good for us." Hermione said.

"This is insane! You two always give the best gifts, we hardly got you two anything good this year. Now I feel like an ass." Harry said.

"You did so good last year we were making up for that. And look at all the shiny things you got us." Abby said holding up a diamond encrusted bracelet.

"I guess, there's always your birthdays. And valentine's day is just around the corner." Harry said

"Don't forget mother's day." Neville added and both girls shook their heads as they laughed.

The sisters got small things like gold watch lockets, small diamond earrings, and handbags from everyone. Then they opened Harry's gift. They both got Winchester B&S .22 rifles. The next little box was a set of colt cloverleaf revolvers for each of them. The last box they got was a set of Colt lighting revolvers with the shorter 3 ½ barrels and the recoil charms for each of them.

"I know it's a lot of firepower, and you two are not that comfortable around guns but for your safety I would really like you both to be armed. This family is becoming more and more famous by the day and when we start the agency up in the new year you both will be assigned a set of agents to look after you if you leave the house with the kids. But still if you two had guns and knew how to handle yourselves it would give me some piece of mind. Also you're both good looking young girls and the world is not that nice. Any one of us can teach you to use those, we can start with the rifle and work our way up to the colts, if you find any of the guns uncomfortable in the hand we'll find something else for you. We love you and we want you to be safe." Harry said.

"Thank you Harry, we weren't raised around guns but living here for the last two months have shown us guns are a big part of this family. I think it's time for us to get used to them more." Susan said.

"Tommy will you teach me how to shoot?" Penny said holding the colt in her hand like it was going to bite her.

"Sure Penny, I'd love to." Tommy said with a smile.

Tommy made out like a bandit. His aunt gave him a new trunk full of books to work through. Neville gave him six really cool engraved, jewel encrusted odd revolvers from Europe in a display case. Most of them were pinfire, and it was more for display then shooting but all of them worked if he wanted to give them a go. Neville said they could hunt down ammo for them in a few weeks. His mom gave him a bunch of clothes including new riding boots, a nice brown leather hunting vest, and a new bush hat. She also gave him a British Bulldog revolver with a nice curved ivory handle, nickel finish, and deep set gold engravings.

"Nice, I like it." Tommy said looking over the chunky pocket pistol.

"That is a Smith redesign. It's something I asked for. I liked the one Harry brought home so much that I asked Smith to take a look at it and see what he could do. He re cut the grip to fit better in the hand, added the ejector enchantment and took the ejector rod out. He then recut the cylinder and expanded it on the inside to take a 45lc instead of the .450 adams round. He added the recoil enchantment and whisper charm. It's a powerful little gun. I carry one in my handbag at all times. I'd like you to carry this in your coat instead of the little .22 short. I know you're like you're father and you have ten guns and a knife on you all the times but carry this one for your mom?" She said.

"Sure mom. I love it. Infact I'm going to engrave mom on the handles and fill it with gold." Tommy said hugging his mom hard. "I love you mom." He said softly.

"Not as much as I love you baby." she said back.

He got a nice gold tie tack from Penny, and he gave her tickets to the Savoy Theatre in London in two weeks to see H.M.S. Pinafore. They both blushed as he asked her out on a date to dinner at Criterion and a play. He handed Susan a ticket as well so she could chaperone the trip. The adults tried very hard not to laugh or grin too hard.

"You will also have a detachment of two agents to escort you on your trip. London can be a dangerous place at night. Also you should be there to have fun, you shouldn't have to watch your back for one night." Harry said.

"Thank's dad." Tommy said looking at his dad with an honest look of thanks. Harry winked at him.

"And hey, there's still time to find Susan a date for the evening as well. I have a company full of upstanding gentleman agents that have sworn a loyalty oath to me so I know they'll be good company." Harry said with a smile.

"That won't be necessary Harry, I do not enjoy the company of men." Susan said.

"Oh? OH! Why didn't you say so. I have the perfect date for you. She's a black level agent and the best shot on my team. Tall, thin, blonde, acts a bit brash but it's nothing a woman's touch wouldn't be able to soften up. She does smoke cigars, is that a deal breaker?" Harry asked shocking the 24 year old closeted victorian lady.

"Um, i… I've never, um…" Susan said flustered.

"Way to go Harry, you broke my best friend." Abby said hitting Harry in the arm as she hugged Susan to her side.

"What? I'm used to 2016, in our time we had the whole LGBT and a few other letters I'm sure I missed. The point is in 2016 we don't care who you love or anything like that. That was normal to me. This whole repressed sexuality is not. We should really make a company wide announcement about being cool about all this. You know just because it's 1886 outside it doesn't mean B&S can't be more 2016 about people's rights." Harry said.

"It's a good thought Harry but we can't change overnight and you can't just spring a date on Susan like that. It's not right." Hermione explained.

"Really? Shit. My bad, that one was on me. I was just trying to be helpful. Sorry Susan. I'll just shut up now." Harry said feeling really dumb.

"No, it's fine, it's kind of refreshing to find people that just accept me." Susan said holding her sister's hand.

"Well we do, like Harry said people are a lot more accepting where we're from." Abby said.

"Well this feels awkward, Tommy you have some more gifts let's get this show back up and running." Neville said making everyone laugh.

Tommy saved his dad's gifts for last. There were a few boxes but he grabbed the biggest one first. It was a big rifle case and inside was a huge hand made 4 bore double rifle. It was so big it took up most of the case and it was broken down. The barrel was 23 inches long and laying sideway it was still huge. The stock was made of walnut and it had a dragon carved into the stock and the action. He pulled the rifle out, put it together, and shouldered the huge 30 pound gun.

"My God, how the hell can I shoot this thing?" Tommy asked with a huge grin.

"Did you see the bullets it shoots?" Harry asked pointing at the built in cigar box style ammo box built into the case. He lifted the lid and laughed. The bullet was 5 ½ inches long and at least an inch in diameter. The huge brass shell weighed a quarter pound and the gun was a double barrel rifle.

"Holy crap dad!" Tommy said.

"Well when we went dragon hunting you had your high wall and it did nothing. You're uncle and I were talking about getting you a .500 nitro rifle but I kept going back to the two 4 bore rifles we found in the forest. I asked around and found a third rifle. We had Smith's team go to work on all three guns. They have recoil enchantments thankfully but I have to tell you that's not a 2 bore shell. That is an artillery shell they made. It's under half compression. It's a 10 inch long 3 inch wide shell packed with black powder with a 3 inch ball of brass coated lead with a steel core. It's made for bringing down dragons, or you know, jetliners. It's so powerful we can't shoot it in the apartment. We have to use the range in the office. We have target loads too but even those are too powerful to shoot here in the house. Smith said he's working on super light loads for home target practice. Having shot the target loads I can say that the gun launched a six foot wide four foot long fireball out the front. And yes brother, you have one too." Harry said tossing his brother a shrunken case.

"Awesome!" Neville said expanding the case and pulling out a matching gun.

"We need to try these out!" Tommy said.

"We will, we'll head into the office in a bit but for now try those three flat boxes." Harry said with a smirk.

Tommy unwrapped one of the three flat wood gun boxes. It had a marshal's star on the case and inside was a Colt Peacemaker with a long barrel and wood handles. On the wood grip panel was an engraved name filled with gold. He took the gun out and looked at the name.

"Wyatt Ea… No! Is this real?" Tommy asked.

"If you're asking that's Wyatt Earp's signature then yes it is, if you're asking if that's his gun, then no it's not, unfortunately he's retired and doesn't carry anymore. He also sold the gun he used at the OK corral a few years ago to a private collector. But he was willing to sign my book. He didn't know it was a copy book. I did get lucky with his brother Virgil. He had his scofield still and he was willing to part with it for a silver brick. It's sitting in the shorter box." Harry said pointing at the next box.

"NO WAY!" Tommy yelled ripping the paper off the box and saw the Sharif's shield. Inside the case was a beat up nickel plated S&W Schofield with ivory grips. The gun was not signed but the inside of the case had a note signed by Virgil Earp stating that this was the gun he used in the shoot out at the OK Corral on October 26, 1881. There was also a picture of an older man with a big mustache holding the gun standing next to Harry. The case had a brass name plate with his signature as well.

"If you like that then the last box is going to make your head explode." Harry said laughing.

"You didn't? Was he as cool in real life?" Tommy asked unwrapping the last box slowly. As if to savor the excitement.

"Yes. He was quick witted, and sharp as a tack. And the voice was spot on." Harry said as Tommy saw carved on the lid of the box was a poker hand, aces over eights. Inside the box was a nickel plated colt peacemaker with a short 4.75 inch barrel and ivory handles, a Colt Lightning in nickel with ivory handles, a 5 inch dagger shaped knife with ivory handles, and a nickel plated derringer with pearl handles. The two colts had gold signatures but the knife didn't. The danger had engravings up the back strap that read 'To Doc From Kate'.

"This says to Doc from Kate!" He said holding the little derager.

"Yes it does, it took some time to track it down. He sold off all of his guns, but he remembered selling that one to a shop in Colorado. I bought the knife from him along with his signature. He's in bad shape, he can't have too long to live." Harry said looking sad.

"Is that why you asked me if wizards could get TB?" Hermione asked.

"Yeah. I had the bank track them down for me and then I sent a rider to get there and drop a portkey for me. I met with each man the week before the twins were born. I wanted to make sure I couldn't catch anything and give it to the babies." Harry said.

"Dad do you think I can…"

"Meet them? Wyatt and his brother Virgil are going to have dinner with us in four months at Wyatt's casino in San Diego. Doc said he would go too if he felt up to it. I told him if he ever needed money to get to San Diego, or anything at all he had to do was walk into any B&S shipping location and hand them my card. But I doubt he'll make it. I've seen eyes like that before. He's done and he's hiding away and riding the party to the end. He was gone the next day according to the bartender. Kate wasn't with him. It's kind of sad." Harry said.

"Can't we fix him up?" Tommy asked.

"No, the man has not one drop of magic in him. If he did we could help him but there's nothing we can do for him. What's worse is he doesn't want help either." Harry said.

"Still to talk to the Earp brothers. Dad, it's crazy." Tommy said looking at the guns in front of him.

"I know, we're all headed to San Diego in May to dine with the brothers. Of course my Family is invited as well, I couldn't leave my brother out of this and of course my history major wife." Harry said.

"So cool." Tommy said looking at the little derringer in his hand.

"I knew you would like that. Out of everything I knew that little gun would be the pride of your collection. There's one last case." Harry said pointing to the rifle case.

Tommy pulled the paper off and and opened the nice wood case. Inside was an ar-15 like he saw his dad use before but unlike his dad's gun this one had a wood stock, grip and foregrip. It also had gold fill engravings of lions on the magwell and a gold scope. There was a second upper receiver and barrel in the case along with four short black and gold magazines.

"I wanted you to have good rifle in .300 win mag but I know black rifle isn't really your style so I made that. The wood was easy to shape with a few spells from a book your mother had and the engravings hide a whisper enchantment. It also has a .223 upper in the case for practice. The mags are 100 rounders and the scope has magical magnification." Harry said.

"Now this is a nice rifle." Tommy said.

"And with the magical rounds we brought with us and the ones Smith and his team are coming up with it's perfect for hunting things that can hunt you." Harry said.

"I think we need to get dressed and hit the range. We all have toys to play with." Tommy said with a big grin.

The rest of the day was spent at the range, watching movies, and eating big meals. They ended the night in the PJs, under blankets, drinking hot cocoa and eggnog while watching White Christmas.

Six days later on New Year's Eve was the wedding. It was a small affair considering the amount of people they knew. They invited just a few dozen friends. The whole thing was held on the roof of Park Place. They set up an arch and some chairs. Ragnok officiated the service. His title at the bank and the fact that the paperwork went through the bank made it all legal. Neville and Hermione stood with them. It started at six and they kept the ceremony short. They set up a tent off to the side that had a good sized expansion on it to hold the party. They served a nice dinner and followed it up with a party until after midnight to celebrate the new year. They served a hundred bottles of champagne and sent everyone home with gift basket with wine, cheese, champagne, and chocolate. After the party Harry carried his bride across the threshold of their room and tossed her on the bed as they laughed. He fell on the bed next to her and looked at her in her white dress.

"So Mrs. Steel, are you happy?" He asked.

"Unbelievably so." She said with a grin.

"Good, as long as you're happy, I'm happy." Harry said kissing her.

"You think you're happy now wait till I come back." She said with a smirk as she rolled off the bed and headed into the bathroom. When she came out she was wearing white lingerie and Harry grin got bigger.


	12. Chapter 12

AN: This is it. the last chapter of the story. it got more love then i first thought it would. i started writing it at the same time as Investigator and i saw how good that story took off so i sidelined this story. i'm glade you guys liked it and like i said there is a lot of sequel opportunity here. i really liked this story and so did my friends that's why it's the backbone of our RPG.

In about two weeks i will start posting the the alternate universe version of this story that takes place in my RPG. That story started off the same as this one but the world is very different. We have 6 game sessions under our belt so far and the DM notes i took from the game are good for about 3-5 chapters depending how i sum it up. i will be putting out one chapter a week and the story will get a wrap up happy epilogue when they get tired of playing or if there is a TPK (Total Party Kill). if the story is getting more love then average i might keep it going after they quit or get TPK'ed. In any even thank you for tuning in to Harry Steel Through Time. it was fun to write and i love the Character of Tommy. he's a fun OC.

The year of 1887 flew by so fast that it rolled into 1888 without them even noticing. The family was so busy they barely had time to talk. BSSI took up a lot of time. Not to mention the time they lost taking the potion. Starting with Harry in the end of January they all took the elixir of life and spent some time in a coma as the potion did it's magic. Harry was out for 7 days. Neville was out for 10 days. Hermione was out for 10 days. But Abby was out for 20 days. The reason she was out for so long was because she took a different potion them the ones they took. Ollivander tested the stone they found and he figured out what it's properties were. The stone from the tomb granted 100 years of life but it also gave you a power boost as well. The thing was you had to be young enough to handle the stress of your core expanding. Younger cores were still flexible. As it was Abby just made the cut off. If she was two or three years older the potion would have killed her. The stone was also smaller, it could only make three doses of potion. But with the two stones they had eight doses of potion. Five Ollivander blend, three Egyptian blend. After they all took the potion they had four doses left, two of each kind. Harry took the potions and put them in a locked box in the vault. They had a shelf life of a hundred years.

When they got their bearings about them they dove head first into BSSI. They started off working in New York only, but soon word of their work spread to London, Chicago, and Paris. By mid March they had an office in London. June saw the Chicago office opening up much to the Pinkerton agency's displeasure, and by the end of the summer they had an office in Paris. Each time they opened an office they had to hire more staff and train more agents. None of the offices had a big building like the main office in New York. But each branch had 25 full time agents and a hundred staff workers. They also had a full time staff of healers and five black level agents. Harry spent most of the year training agents and shuffling them around to fit best with each team. By the end of the year they had 130 agents and 25 black level agents. They also had 750 staff members working for the agency. With their other three companies they employed 1,485 wizards and witches. By the time they were hiring for the Paris office they were scraping the bottom of the magical, english speaking, able bodied barrel. As it was it took some shuffling of staff to get the smarter, more powerful people they had in positions of management to keep an eye on the less educated ones.

On the upside the agency was handling everything from secure transport, to insurance investigation, to helping police solve murders and thefts. On top of that they had the Black level agents doing covert work. They cleared the list of dark vault objects and under Harry's tutelage they learned how to make people have accidents. They took out some of the dark families that year and monitored the rest to see what they were up to. As soon as they did something bad they got a visit from the men and women in black.

But the year of 1887 wasn't all work. On June 21st they attended the Queen's golden Jubilee in London. They also visited the construction site of the eiffel tower. On top of that Harry got to have dinner with Arthur Conan Doyle at Criterion and got his copy of a Study in Scarlet sighed by the man. But by far one of the best days of the year happened when they went to the Winchester factory in Connecticut and bumped into John Browning. Harry had him sign a Winchester 1885 high wall rifle in .45-75. He handed him a card and told him if he ever needed anything at all he shouldn't hesitate to stop by any of the B&S locations in the world.

Harry ordered 200 1887 lever action shotguns in 12 gauge with 18 inch barrels, pistol grip stocks, and shoulder slings. He then had Smith's team add an extended magazine tube to hold 50 shells, a recoil enchantment so they could shoot it easier without a shoulder stock, and make a run of 12 gauge brass shells with a slug and ten buckshot bb's. With some file work and the brass shells the shotguns could run through all 52 shells in under a minute with no hiccups. Soon most agents carried the shotguns on shoulder slings under their coats and the criminals knew not to fuck with the BSSI agents.

All it took was a group of six armed men attempting to knock over a female agent making a delivery to a bank in Chicago. She got off her horse and took the leather bag full of silver and gold certificates out of her saddlebag. She made the short fifteen foot trip to the bank and six men with guns drawn ran at her demanding the bag. She dropped the bag by her feet, slung her lever action shotgun up, and blasted all six men in three seconds. She got shot three times in the vest and sustained four broken ribs. She cast a healing spell at herself and walked into the bank to hand off the pouch like nothing happened. The cops showed up as she was leaving. She flashed her badge and they just nodded as she hopped on her horse and rode away.

This happened a few times over the course of the year. Each time the men ended up dead and the cops shrugged it off. After all, there were a half dozen less stupid criminals in the world now. If you're willing to attack a BSSI agent you deserved what you got. And there was no confusion involved. BSSI agents wore gold badges on their jackets. They rode in black cargages with BSSI on the doors or on black stallions with gold and black leather saddles with BSSI embossed all over it. They were armed to the teeth and half the time they came in pairs with one man acting as just the firepower.

Harry trained them so well he trained himself out of a job. The regular agents didn't need to call for backup once the whole year. They handled everything by themselves or with a prefered partner as backup. The truth is Harry trained them for a modern threat and the sorry bastards they encountered were not ready for it. He taught them SWAT team tactics and the criminals they were facing didn't know what the word tactical ment. In the end the agents ended up arresting a lot of people that just surrendered when they saw them coming. By the beginning of 1888 the agents just had to announce themselves and half the men they were coming for would give up.

Harry could understand the fear on the criminal's part. BSSI agents killed close to a hundred people in their first year. They solved dozens of murders, more than a hundred high end theft cases, made hundreds of deliveries, and no one under their watch got anything more than a few bumps and scrapes. Half of the black level agents handled the the more dangerous jobs like dark creature hunting and dark object retrieval. The other half, Harry hand selected to handle Unspeakable jobs like assassinations, kidnappings, interrogations, and counter intelligence. They were responsible for the uptick of bad shit that befell the dark families in the UK.

For all of their hard work and dedication BSSI alone pulled in just over 20 million dollars in profits in its first year. When added to the 39 million in profits B&S took in it was a staggering amount of cash. Harry doubled the $1 rase to $2 and increased the christmas bonus from 22% to 32%. He also upped the pay of agents to $32 and $52 a day for black agents.

Hermione said they were messing with the economy by overpaying their work force so much over market value but Harry just laughed. The truth was the more they paid their work staff the more they made in profits every week. Besides, even with their expenses and the rich lifestyle they still were making money hand over fist and Harry felt guilty with the wages he paid his workers. But the market value for everything was so low it was still staggering. They figured out things were about 90 times less in 1887 then they were in 2016. Their lowest paid workers that were making $1,825 a year before bonuses was the equivalent of $164,250 a year in 2016. Which made Susan and Penny's new salary of $18,250 a year in 1887 the equivalent of $1,642,500 in 2016. But with the way they took care of the four twins it was worth every dollar. Besides with the way Tommy and Penny were looking at eachother and the amount of time they were spending together Penny was going to be his daughter in law at some point.

They also stockpiled crates of 100,000 liter tanks of gas, jet fuel, diesel fuel, propane, and kerosene in a cold vault. Which would be worth billions in the future. Not to mention all the gold and silver bars they now had stockpiled in the vault. Their future was secure. On top of that was all the works of art from Monet and other impressionists hanging on the walls of the apartment. Hermione had a good eye for art. Harry could care less. He knew what the names ment and he gathered as many as he could get his hands on. The ones that weren't in the apartment were hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Each painting was tagged with a magical tracking charm and covered under BSSI like most of the works of art in the Museum.

But they didn't just buy works of art. They bought a lot more real estate. Big chunks of land in new states like Montana and the Dakotas. They also bought more land in big cities like Chicago, London, and Paris. In New York they bought up land in Queens, and Long Island.

At the start of the 1888 year, as Abby and History predicted the two very cold winters in 1886 and 87 that hit the south killed off most of the citrus trees causing the land in southeastern Florida to sell for pennies an arch. They bought up a huge piece of land to the south of Miami and re-planted citrus trees early in the planting season. They packed the roots in dragon dung fertiliser. By the middle of summer they had huge orange and lemon trees full of big juicey fruit. They hired a few workers to tend to the trees and by the end of 1888 B&S was in the fruit game thanks to a field of Banana and apple trees they added at the end of summer. The whole 6,400 arch plantation was covered by wards to keep the temperature just right and the bugs/people out. With magic it took just a few farmers to grow, pick, box, and ship the fruit and with the amount of fertilizer they had from the beef farm and the dragon hunts they kept the land healthy and growing year round.

They thought about buying the the islands off the coast of Miami and having the goblins clear the land of trees and building the islands connecting the mainland to Miami beach before Carl Fisher could do it. But they talked it over with the goblins and the price would be too high. Besides the goblins were still building the race track mountain and they couldn't take a big contract like that. So instead they drew up plans for a big spanish style house with white walls and clay tile roof on the edge of the farm that butted up against the bay to be built by the summer of 1888. They made a three level 10 bedroom 12 bathroom house with a big pool, a pool house with 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, and a private beach with a big deep water dock for boats. In the front of the house coming off each wing of the house was a carriage house with a ten car garage on the main floor and three 2 bedroom 1 bathroom apartments on the second level on each side. There was a big eight foot tall brick wall around the whole property and a big gate in the front in the middle of the big courtyard/driveway was a fountain. The house cost 1,800 galleons or $45,000 when it was all done in june of 1888. They spent another $5,000 to furnish it.

The place was called El Castillo and it would be a place where the whole family could come and be together. It was something Harry had been thinking about. His son Tommy was 13 and getting more independent by the day. At some point down the line he'd have a family of his own and even if they lived in the same apartment. They would be dealing with their own problems. At some point all the twins would become grown ups with families of their own. Both families wanted to adopt more kids in the future. The truth was at some point their family would balloon from 9 to potentially hundreds of Steels and Blackwells. Both his wife and his sister laughed when he said this but Neville nodded. He was thinking about it to.

The race track was completed by January of 1888 and the boys spent all of their free time in their new playground. The girls couldn't really roll their eyes too hard because they were with them half the time. In the middle of the mountain top was a big building with a garage to store all the cars and a place to work on them. The building also had a bar, game room, six bedrooms, ten bathrooms, and a big hundred foot tower with a magical elevator overlooking all the race tracks. The boys spent time stripping the 35 random cars Harry had in his bag and getting them race ready.

They were mostly euro sedans and coupes. But there were ten nice sports cars and exotics in the bag too like a 2015 Lamborghini Huracan, a 1998 Ferrari F355, a 2014 Dodge Viper ACR, a 2012 Nissan GTR, a 2015 Corvette ZR1, a 1989 Porsche 944 turbo race car, a 2016 Mustang GT350R, a 2014 Subaru BRZ, a 1997 Honda NSX, and a resto modded 1969 Camaro.

The rest was junk Harry forgot to clear out of his bag. Things like BMW M3s and M5s, Mercedes S and C class cars, Audi A and S class sedans, Jaguar X types, Rolls Royce Phantoms, and Bentley Continental GTs. They were a nice cars taken from bad men with the intent to add them to the sell pile in the contraband wearhouse. None of the cars were older than 2010, most of them were black, and all of them had nice leather and wood interiors.

They set aside a few of the really nice cars like the two Phantoms, the Jaguar XJ Limo, and the custom Continental GT. Neville and Harry worked on the rest of the cars. By casting an overpowered repair charm at the car they took it back to factory new. Then they stripped out the interiors. Harry copied the racing seat and the five point harness and they bolted them into the cars. They enchanted the cars to take a hit and hold up to the damage. By March they had a fleet of track cars. By early April they were learning the tracks and teaching friends and family how to drive. It ended up to be fun for the whole family with Tommy learning quickly and outpacing his dad and uncle.

On the home front the four twins went from small football sized crying babies to walking talking two year olds with personalities of their own. Even at the age of two they acted like their parents. Little Frank Blackwell looked like his dad but acted like his mom. At two he loved books. Storytime was his time. He liked to sit on his father's or his uncle's lap and look at the book as they read. Susan was sure he would be reading in a year. His sister Emma on the other hand liked to hang back and watch the room as if she was taking everything in and making mental notes. It unnerved both nannies at first but after spending time with Neville they saw the same quite observant behavior.

The Steel children were a mix of their parents. Lily had blond hair and green eyes and liked to always be moving. Playing, crawling, touching things, when she started climbing the furniture they had to start baby proofing the house. Not that it mattered she started summoning things to her by 15 months. It would have shocked them if little Bobby hadn't been doing it for five months already. Bobby had black hair and blue eyes and was a powerhouse like his dad. He skipped right over accidental magic and went right to controlled magic. He summoned, levitated, and banished toys at will. He also like to entertain his sister and cousins. One time they walked into the nursery and saw all of the stuffed animals dancing around the room. It was something he liked to do.

"Son, what are you doing?" Harry asked his little boy.

"Teddy make dance." He said.

"I see, how are you doing it?" Harry asked.

"Magic." Bobby said laughing.

"Right. Well if there was any doubt you were my kid it's gone now." Harry said hugging the boy with a smirk.

The family fell into a groove and things ran smoothly. It was comfortable. Hermione continued working on ways to make their lives easier. Abby kept BSSI going with Marcus' help. Neville turned out to be a good field trainer helping green agents get their footing. Harry shocked everyone by really embracing classroom teaching. He ran a class three times a week in the danger room for advanced agents training. Not everyone had the power level and the moral flexibility to become a Black level agent but he pushed the agents and agent trainees to become better. In a year and a half they had yet to lose an agent and he wanted to keep that record going as long as he could. On the days he was not teaching he was working in the field as as a field trainer.

Nothing happened until October 30th 1888. That day Neville walked into Harry's office in the BSSI building with a big grin on his face.

"What can I help you with?" Harry asked.

"You busy on the night of the 8th of November?" Neville asked.

"Not really, I mean sleeping might be on the agenda. why?" Harry asked.

Neville dropped a newspaper on his desk with a headline Jack The Ripper

"We've been so busy we forgot something important. But we know where he's going to be on the 8th of November. He's going to be at 13 Miller's Court off Dorset street. Where the killer will be busy killing Mary Kelly. I say we stakeout the place from the rooftop and wait for him to strike. Then we'll go in and get him." Neville said with a grin.

"Okay. Now this sounds fun. Let's do it." Harry said matching his grin.

That was how they found themselves sitting on a roof behind a wall of charms sharing a flask of Highland Park at 3:45 in the morning November the 9th.

"What time do you think he'll strike?" Harry asked his brother as he held his agent's revolver in his hand.

"No idea. They found her body the next morning according to the book Abby had." Neville said.

"You think we should try to take him alive?" Harry asked.

"Sure, unless he's someone famous, then it's our word against his, in that case we're fucked. There are too many questions to answer. Things like why are we here staking out this house? If we were following him then how did we know it was him. Also if we stop him from killing this prostitute then we have what? A man followed a hooker back to her house and got rough with her? It's 1888 Harry, women have no rights and hookers have even less." Neville said.

"SO we let him kill the girl?" Harry asked.

"No, we shoot him in the face, mind wipe the girl, and dump his body in the Themes after we rob him. But that's only if he's someone famous. If we can't recognise him we take him alive and question him under truth potion. Either way it ends tonight. This is what most likely happened the last time. Something happened to the killer before he could kill again. This time we're what happened." Neville said looking at his pocket watch.

"What time is it?" Harry asked.

"It's 3:57." Neville said.

"Over under he gets here by five?" Harry asked.

"Under." Neville said.

"Gold coin?" Harry asked pulling out a $50 gold coin.

"Deal." Neville said with a smirk. "I can't believe we're sitting here waiting for Jack the Ripper." Neville said.

"I know, this is fun. I wish we would have thought about this sooner." Harry said.

"We dropped the ball on this. There should have never been a killer in Whitechapel." Neville said.

"Hay Nev, who wins if he get's here before four?" Harry said pointing to a man in a top hat and overcoat following a woman down the street.

"Me I think." Neville said putting his watch away and pulling his gun.

"Cool, I'll owe you?" Harry asked as Mary opened her door and slipped inside.

"Yeah. full approach? Or one in and one out?" Neville asked as the man approached the door.

"Let's see how this plays out. This could be a john." Harry said tracking the man with his gun as Mary answered the door. The man showed her something and she let him in. "What's going on?" Harry muttered.

"I don't know but I'm going to find out. Let's approach the door and see what's going on." Neville said before popping to the side off the door. Harry did the same thing going to the other side of the door. Harry made the door invisible to them and they saw the man talking to Mary. Harry looked at the gold badge on his jacket and studied the man closely.

"Is that the Chief Inspector?" Harry asked.

"Yeah, Abberline, Fred Abberline. If he's the killer then we know why he's getting away with the murders. If he make a move at her I'm dropping him. We can't arrest him." Neville said.

"Copy that, I'll kick in the door." Harry said backing up and standing in front of the door.

Harry watched closely as the inspector waited until she turned around before pulling a knife out of his coat. Harry kicked in the door and Neville rolled around the door jamb and shot him in the arm. Harry slipped in and kicked the inspector in the center of his chest and slammed him into the wall as Neville came in. Neville rolled him over and cuffed him as he drug him out of the house. Harry mind wiped Mary, picked up the knife and fixed the door as he walked out. They portkeyed to the london office and sat the inspector in a chair.

"What is the meaning of this?! I am a chief inspector!" he shouted only for Neville to belt him across his chin.

"Shut up Jack. Yes, we know it's you." Neville said when his eyes got big.

"We know it's you and we want to know why?" Harry said.

"I have no idea what you're talking about! Now let me go!" He shouted setting his eyes in a cold glare.

"Right, we do this the magical way." Harry said grabbing his hair and pulling back hard enough to make him open his mouth. When he did, Neville put some truth potion into his mouth. As soon as it hit his tongue he went stiff before going limp. "Good, now why did you start killing hookers?" Harry asked.

"I did it because I could. Because I wanted to. I did it because the fucking whores deserved it. I wanted to do it. I wanted to gut them like the fucking cows they are." He said coldly.

"How did you get the idea to start?" Neville tried.

"There was a murder a few months back, a whore was stabbed 39 times. The blood, the guts, the inner workings of her body touched something inside me. I needed to see it again. I needed to feel it." He said with a voice full of pleasure and lust.

"Right one last question. How many people did you kill?" Harry asked taking his gun out.

"Four whores." He said.

"That's it?" Harry asked.

"Yes." He said.

"Good." Harry said putting a bullet between his eyes.

He took his pocket watch, his cufflinks, his ring, and his Webley Royal Irish Constabulary revolver from his pocket. He left the badge but made sure to take everything else off the body. The last thing his did was summon to lead slug from his head and the one from his arm before transfiguring him into a small black rock. They took a short walk to the river and tossed the rock into the water. It would take a week or two for the transfiguration to drop and then the body would surface a week after he went missing. They portkeyed back to the house and Harry walked into the study. He took a display case out of his desk and put the things he took off of the killer's body in the case. He transfigured a small brass plaque that read Jack the Ripper and stuck it to the case before putting the case on a table next to the guns he had signed by John Browning.

Harry took out a bottle of scotch and two glasses. He poured two drinks and handed one to his brother along with a gold coin.

"You took the under." Harry said taking a seat by the fireplace with his brother joining him.

"It was a safe bet, all of his killings took place before five in the morning." Neville said.

"We should have caught this guy sooner. Four dead girls are on our heads. We stopped so many tragedies in the last two years but we dropped the ball on this one." Harry said summoning two cigars and the lighter from the table and passing one to Neville.

"We got comfortable. We can't let it happen again." Neville said.

"We can get comfortable, but we need to stay on top of these dates better and we need to get in with the cops betters. London Metro should have called us after the first dead girl. We can't butt in on every case without being called, it will look bad but we need to keep on top of dates better. We can't prevent every murder but we can soften the blow of tragedy. Just like we did for the snow storm in March. We warned our staff it was coming and they in turn warned their muggle friends and neighbors up and down the east coast. And we opened the warehouses for shelters. Abby said the storm killed 400 people in our time, this time the death count was less than 200. Was it bad? Sure. but it wasn't tragic. We did what we could." Harry said as Abby walked into the room in her night gown and bathrobe.

"Did you two get him?" She asked with a grin as she dropped into Harry's lap and took a sip of his drink.

"We caught and killed Jack the Ripper tonight. You'll never guess who it was." He said with a matching grin.

"Who? A mad doctor? A member of parliament? It has to be someone powerful or you would have arrested him." She said.

"Chief Inspector Fred Abberline." Harry said.

"NO! You're kidding! The lead investigator? That's too Hollywood!" She said looking shocked.

"I know, when we saw him we waited until he almost slit that girl's throat before moving in. but I have something I want to show you." Harry said getting up and getting the case. "Jack the Ripper's knife. It's a scalpel I think." Harry said handing her the case.

"Fuck this is both exciting and morbid." She said looking at the case.

"I know, it's why we feel odd right now. We stopped a killer but we did it too late. We need to get on top of shit like this faster." Harry said.

"I've been talking to Mia about hiring a seer to head off new events and keep track of the list we have. We know we messed this one up." Abby said.

"Good. It's no one's fault because we all worked our asses off but the we have a responsibility to stop killers. Who knows what the Inspector would do or did in our timeline to make him stop after tonight? If he even did? It's shit like that that haunts my..." Harry started to say before they heard a knock at the front door. Harry was out of his seat heading to the front door. Harry checked the magical peep hole on the wall in the front hall and saw Sally the night shift desk clerk with a small bulldog revolver in her hand and a white haired woman in her early forties dressed in shimmering red robes under a black cloak. She had silver blue eyes that looked oddly familiar to him and while he was looking she smiled a warm and friendly smile. Harry pulled the agent's revolver from his shoulder rig and answered the door with a smile.

"Sorry for the late hour Mr. Steel, but this lady said it was an emergency and that she had very important information for you. She's clean, Mike checked her for weapons and she surrendered her wand before we came up here." Sally said handing him a 10 inch very thin wand that had an odd power rolling through it and a card that read Madam Lyra Lovegood, Seer.

"State your business." Harry said holding back the smile on his face. That's where he saw her face before. This was Luna's however many time great grandmother.

"Many times is right. I was born in 1447. I am the second oldest in the bloodline, I believe you know my however many great uncle Gideon Ollivander and I'm here to strike a deal with you. I will work for you if you will protect my family." She said as her eyes clouded over more.

"Right, please come in, Sally we have it from here. Thank you." Harry said shaking her hand and placing a $5 coin in her palm.

"Just doing my job Sir." She said with a smile.

"And you do it well. As for you my lady Lovegood, may I take your cloak?" Harry asked putting away his gun and handing her back the wand with a slight bow.

"You may, and you don't have to treat me like a lady of the 1400s. I've seen hundreds of different possible futures and hundreds of years into those futures. I know of a great many things. Like my uncle I too have seen the future you all came from." She said as Harry hung up her cloak by the door and lead her into the study. "Hello." She said with a very Luna like smile to Neville, Abby, and Hermione who was sitting next to her husband in her robe.

"I would make the introductions but I think you know everyone here Madam Lovegood. Guys this is Luna's many great grandmother Lyra Lovegood. Would you like a drink Madam Lovegood?" Harry asked handing her into a chair and going to the drinks cart.

"Yes, a glass of that fine scotch with two ice cubes if you please and you don't have to be so formal Harry, Lyra please." She said with a faraway smile that got bigger when everyone else in the room smiled.

"I hate to be a pessimist but I've never heard of you from Luna." Harry said leaving the question in the air.

"That's because I died in 1939 in the london bombing. The Lovegood sight is a blessing and a curse. It occurs every so often in the the bloodline. We can see the ever changing future but, when it comes to us and our families it's blank. A blind spot. But I've been keeping an eye on you ever since my uncle told me about you. It was at that point I knew that dark timeline was the one you came from. But since your return things have been looking up. When I saw your need for a seer a few days ago I knew this was my chance to protect my family and put my gift to better use then telling fortunes for the rich and powerful. For space in a building like this, and protection for my family. We don't need guards but some of those protection vests you all wear, and those emergency portkey rings would be nice. For this I will help you keep track of the future. And to answer your previous question, in half the time lines where Mary Kelly lives she will continue to walk the streets until she dies of syphilis. In other timelines she meets a man and they have a few kids. In others she is murdered in various ways. She does work a dangerous job. As for your other question, the chief inspector, in some timelines he stops killing because the other cops start looking at him. In some he moves on to killing children. Only in a few timelines does he get caught." She said with glowing white eyes and a breathy voice. She blinked a few times and flexed her nose like she had to sneeze.

"I think we owe it to Luna to look out for your family no matter what. How many Lovegoods are there?" Harry asked.

"As of right now, there are 15 of us in the bloodline, not all of them are Lovegoods but they are of the Ollivander bloodline." She said.

"Well we do not have enough space for them in this building but, we have an empty apartment building with 8 apartment units in the danger room on the corner of C street and 3rd avenue. They will be living in one of the most secure buildings in the world surrounded by armed agents and have access to cheap goods and services. They will all be making $5 a day for just living inside the room and I think we're going to start handing out the rings to all of our people. They cost very little and the potential good they can do is staggering. I'll see your request for vests and raise you vests, guns, and training." Harry said.

"You have yourself a deal." She said.

"Oh we're not done dealing yet. We have to talk about your pay and accommodations. I think the first thing we need to know is how your gift works." Harry said.

"It works by questions. The more precise the question the more precise an answer I can give you. Like you asked what would happen to Mary Kelly. As soon as you asked that question I got thirty visions of her death. The timeline is ever changing. I just don't know what will happen, but as time goes on and I look in on the same question I'll see less visions until the timeline locks in and I'll see one vision. If I have a specific event then I can see if it will happen unless a family member or I end up dead in the event then I can't see it. But if you have a list of events I can tell you if they will happen, and if they will happen then I can tell when they will happen, and how bad it will be. I can also tell you the outcome of things and the changes you made. I can not predict wars, and freak accidents. There are too many variables. Also random murders. If someone loses their temper and shoots someone I can't see that. Human emotion plays a big part in randomising the time line. The difference between life and death might come down to weather a man got up on the wrong side of the bed. A bad night's sleep, leads to a poor day at work, which means a man drinks more that night, he stays at a bar past dinner time, he bumps into a guy he works with that gave him a dirty look, a gun is pulled, a man dies. It could be the man that got up angry, or the man that gave the dirty look, or a man leaving the bar to head home to his family. Now if you asked me about any one of those men and how they died I would see that day, and a dozen other days. However if you knew that man could die that day and he did get up angry and he did have a bad day I could tell you for certain that he would stay at the bar and things would play out like it did in your timeline. That is what I'm good for. Confirming and tracking events to see if they play out the way they did from you." She said.

"Then I think we can put you on the payroll at the same level as Marcus and Smith, they get $25,000 a year and your choice of living arrangements. I would like to welcome you to the BSSI family." Harry said holding out his hand.

"I foresee great things." She said with a smirk making them all laugh.

"I would love to pick your brain, but it's after midnight. Do you have a place to stay?" Hermione asked.

"I have a room at the Fifth Avenue Hotel and my driver is waiting for me downstairs. I understand we work out of the office in battery park? I shall report for duty 9am sharp. I look forward to helping you keep us away from that dark timeline." She said finishing her drink and standing up. They all shook hands and Harry walked her down to her waiting carriage.

"I have to know…" Harry started.

"Your whole family makes it past the time you all came back in almost all of the timelines I can see involving your family. But time is ever shifting. All I can say is that you are doing everything right. The things you have set in motion have all protected your family and the more powerful your family gets the more and less safe it becomes. You are more protected but your enemies are an ever growing list." She said.

"Thank you. Have your family come by the office and we'll get them settled in." Harry said handing her into the carriage. He walked up to the carriage driver and saw that he was armed. "You make sure she gets to the hotel tonight and the office in the morning and there will be two more of those in it for you." Harry said handing the young man in his twenties a $50 gold coin. The young man saw the gold coin and nodded.

"I will sir, I'll walk her to her door." He said.

"Good son." Harry said shaking his hand before he took off. Harry walked back into the apartment and saw the study was empty. He walked into his room and saw Abby on the bed. "She's a powerful seer." Harry said.

"You asked her?" Abby asked.

"I didn't have to. We're doing everything we can and we doing the right things." Harry said taking off his clothes and getting into bed.

"Good. That's all we can hope for." She said.

The next day Lyra showed up to the office building and was shown to an office next to Abby's. She sat down and handed Abby a list of things she needed. A runner was sent out and by noon she was sitting in a big leather chair in the dark office surrounded by candles with a glass of brandy and the list of events. By closing time she had percents marked down next to each event on the list and a tired look about here.

From that day forward she looked at the possible future she also added to the list by looking into the possible chain of events that followed the actions they took everyday. It was draining work on her part but every time they stopped something bad from happening she felt a sense of accomplishment and that was something she never felt before. The fact that her whole family lived in a nice apartment inside of the most secure building in the city, for free and they were being paid to live there on top of it. Helped her sleep good at night. In fact neither her or her family really left the building. Why should they? They had everything inside and they made enough money to not have to work. Most of her family joined the company doing things like secratary work, two of her nephews found jobs on the gunsmithing floor others pitched in helping the healers. They were all happy and the fact that their kids could play inside the danger room and they were making a good wage which means they didn't have to work.

That was another thing that had to go much to Harry's dismay. The danger room was renamed B&S town and Harry had plans to build more. The idea of living in a protected building was appealing to a lot of people. Harry was thinking about building a huge blimp hangar style building and expanding it to the size of a small city somewhere in the middle of the country. He was thinking about making the roof retractable and leveling the floor dirt so they could plant yards and gardens. A eutopie protected from the harsh weather where magical families could live and grow and not have to worry about their neighbors seeing their kids do accidental magic. The same idea could also be applied to crop farming. Harry passed the idea around and he got a lot of agreement from his family. He set the goblins to it and the Wolf Crest Estates was constructed in the spring of 1889. It was built in Kansas close to the deer farm.

The building was impressive from the outside. It was shaped like a football stadium. The building was 1,500 foot long and 750 foot wide with a 20 foot tall roof that was fully retractable. From the air it looked like a modern day factory. The building was constructed out of steel frame and heavy two foot cubed blocks of concrete. They dug out the floor one foot deep and laid a concrete slab down with magical drainage. They painted the walls a soft sky blue and cast the sky enchantment on the ceiling. Then they put a 10 times expansion charm on the whole building making it 15,000 foot long, 7,500 foot wide, 200 foot tall, and teen foot deep. This gave them 4 square miles of space.

They back filled the dirt and mixed in dragon dung and fertilizers to grow grass and trees. Over the next year the goblins built a town inside the building. They started buy planting a 15 foot ring of trees around the building along the blue walls to give the appearance of being surrounded by woods on all sides. Then they built a grid of roads separating out blocks with letter street names going east to west and number streets going north to south. They laid down tons of grass seed and with the sunlight coming in on nice days and the magical sunlight and sprinkler system taking care of the not so nice days the grass grew nice and thick.

The goblins next built a town square in the center of the building with a big park with a baseball field. They made a town hall, store fronts with houses above, a ten classroom school, a sheriff's office, a doctor's office, and a few restaurants. Branching out from there they made rows of small two bedroom one bathroom houses with little front yards. Intermixed with small houses were bigger houses with three and four bedrooms and more bathrooms. But for the most part they made smaller houses. They branched out to three block from the town square to start and as more people came to Wolf Crest Estates they would come in and build out a few more blocks. They had 650 houses built by the winter of 1989 and Harry spread the word through the B&S company that they had good affordable houses inside a protected building and sitting under goblin wards.

Wolf Crest cost them 5 million to build so far and they work out a deal with the goblins to come in and build houses when they needed them at a good price. $500 for a two bedroom house, $750 for a three bedroom house and a $1,000 for a four bedroom house. Harry was thinking about selling the houses for ten times that and giving out no interest mortgages for employees looking to buy a house in Wolf Crest. They would also have to pay taxes on their house to keep the town running. $350 for a small house, $550 for a medium house, and $750 for a big house. It was well within budget. After all the lowest level employee made $5 a day and with their bonus they took in $2,400 a year. If you took into account that most of them paid little to no rent and they shopped in B&S stores and bought goods at just above cost and in a lot of cases more than one family member worked in the company making good money. They had plenty of coin left over to buy a house and pay their taxes.

There were a lot of takers as word got out. Everyone liked living in the apartments Harry provided, but the idea of land and more room for their kids to grow and play sold almost every family they had working for them. When they saw the little houses and the town they all jumped on the deal. A ten year mortgage on a two bedroom house was $500 a year when you added in the taxes it came to $850 a year or $70.83 a month or $2.32 a day. And if that was too much Harry gave them the option of a 15 year mortgage for $333 a year, $683 a year with taxes. That was $56.91 a month, or $1.87 a day. And the home was yours after you paid it off. It could be passed on to your kids or sold to someone for more them what you bought it for.

By the spring of 1890 they had most of the town business filled, they had a mayor, a police chief, and a headmistress for the school. They also had 350 of the houses filled with families and young couples. At the end of the day they would lose money on this project even with inflation and the price of houses and taxes going up over the next hundred years but bringing the magical community together was more important.

Not everyone saw the point in buying a house in Wolf Crest. A lot of the workers kept asking the same question to the point that Harry called a mass town hall meeting in Wolf Crest for all of the B&S workers. That was how he found himself standing in front of 1,600 people in the town square on April 5th 1890.

"I called this meeting to address some questions and comments we've been getting about this place from some of you guys. I think the first question I can answer is: Why bother buying a house here in Wolf Crest if we provide houses in apartment buildings for free or close to free. And the answer is, you're right. If you're young, single, old, or working at the entry level position in your first year and you're just now adjusting to having coin in your pocket then Wolf Crest is not for you. You want to be in the city, where the action is and the nightlife is better. As you can see there is only one pub in Wolf Crest and I can tell you now it closes at midnight every night. We do not plan on building another pub and definitely no bars. Wolf Crest is for families full stop. This place is not for you. It's for your kids. It a safe place where you can let your son or daughter walk to the park without having to worry. A place with a yard to pay in. a play ground. A little league baseball team, boy, and girl scouts. Clubs, games and arcades. Not to mention a free school to teach your kids basic reading, writing, math, and magic. That does not mean this place has nothing for adults. Every week we are going to have events planned. We have a bowling alley, a social club for ladies, a hunting lodge for the men, and a bunch of restaurants for everything from inexpensive hearty home cooking for the nights you don't feel like cooking for the family, to five star fancy dining for that special occasion like anniversaries and date night." Harry said taking a drink of water.

"Now the other question I keep getting is why do I have to buy a house to live here when people are paid to live in B&S Town? The answer lies with the name change of the room and it was a reason I was against changing it. As most of you know B&S Town used to be called the Danger Room. the people that live there are paid because they have to put up with us going in there everyday and shooting at each other. They live in a constant state of having to live around us closing off streets, and the sound of gunfire. Yes we throw up muffling charms over the area we close off for the class that day but it's still a constant stream of small popps four hours a day, every day. They get paid to put up with us." Harry said and he got a lot of nodding heads.

"Also, they don't own the apartments they live in. For the price of $5,000 you own a piece of very limited land in a place tailor made to raise a family. Once we fill this place up that's it. We figured out that there's room for about 15,000 people in Wolf Crest. That number might seem like a lot, but consider this. There are 1,600 people in the B&S family right now. A third of you have kids, as your kids grow up, and have kids of their own that number is going to balloon out. We also hire about 150 to 200 people a year to work in the B&S family and some of them are going to want to live here. A $5,000 two bedroom house, with a few expansion charms can become a ten bedroom mansion that you can pass down to your children and your children's children. A piece of land they can call their own." Harry said.

"The last thing I wanted to address was the taxes. Depending on the size of the land under your house you'll have to pay out between $350 to $750. That may sound steep and I just wanted to tell you where that money is going to go. It's going into a fund to pay for the school, the teachers, the post office, the doctor's office, and the police station. It's going to go into the upkeep of this place. To making sure the roof can open and close and the walls don't fall apart. It's also going to go back into the community. Like I said there will be weekly events like dances, fairs, concerts, barbecues, and social gatherings. What little money is leftover will go into a fund for unexpected emergencies. None of your tax dollars go to me. I'm going to level with you all, this place cost 5 Million dollars to build." He said and got a bunch of shocked gasps.

"But it was worth every penny because Wolf Crest is a community. Something the magical world is lacking. And I understand it, it's hard to get to know your muggle neighbors when your young son can't control his magic. That's something you never have to worry about here because you're neighbor's kid is having the same control issues." Harry said with a smile and got some laughs from the crowd.

"Now I can take any questions you have." Harry said drinking his water.

He fielded a few questions that day, and after that they did a walking tour of the town. The next day they had 100 new mortgage requests. By that winter they had most of the houses full and they had the goblins come in and build 500 more houses. That Christmas Harry surprised the them with a big ten bedroom house in the back corner of Wolf Crest. They had some land but not too much. The house was for when their kids got bigger and they wanted to slow down. The Park Place apartment was their home, the El Castillo was a vacation house, but the house in Wolf Crest was for the day their kids got tired of not seeing their parents every day. They knew that day was coming. As it was they started cutting back their hours at work to spend more time with their kids that were rapidly getting bigger. They would use the Wolf Crest house for the summer for now but when they felt it was time they would move their house to Wolf Crest. Until the twins were ready to head off to Salem or Hogwarts. Or if Harry got his way he would have a magic school up and running in seven years. A school that taught advanced education and advanced magic. As it was the school in Wolf Crest would offer night classes to help people that needed it. It was shocking how many employees they had that couldn't read or do math.

That summer when they moved into the wolf crest house and for three months they lived a small town life. During the morning they all headed off to work leaving the kids with the nannies. They got home at or before two everyday and they spent the rest of the day with the two sets of twins in the yard or at the park in the town square. They didn't carry all their guns they just wore their undercover rig. In fact they ditched their formal clothes all together. On the weekends they portkeyed to Florida and spent time on the beach. They attended BBQs, baseball games, concerts, and fairs in the town square.

The twins also got to know the teachers at the school. By this point they were three and a half and they knew how to talk in full sentences even if a bit broken in word choice. Susan knew they were all gifted children. They were a half a year ahead of the learning curve. They would soon be attending school, but as it was Susan taught them letters, numbers, colors, and shapes, Frank was in the lead so far. He could understand what words were. His sister Alice was the next smartest, followed by Lily, with her brother Bobby bringing up the end. But as slow as Bobby was he was still speaking in full sentences. It was funny that the order of intelligence was flipped with the order of power. Little Bobby was a powerhouse. At three he scored an 85 on the power scale. His sister was a 75, still very high for a small child. Alice was a 60 and her brother was a normal 55 on the mage scale.

As time rolled on they all found spending time a Wolf Crest a joy. The slow paced life of a small town did wonders for them. They loved going to events hosted by the town, and they loved talking to their neighbors. They made friends in WOlf Crest that they would miss when they moved back to Park Place. What was a dreaded inevitability of moving to the town for the twins was now something they were looking forward to. The fact that they could relax and not worry about anything took a lot of stress off Harry's mind.

Everyone loved Wolf Crest. The exception being Tommy who spent most of his time running the meat business and spending time in New York with Penny. In fact when they got to the house in Wolf Crest around noon Penny would portkey back to the city to be with Tommy. They would have dinner someplace nice and head off to a play or concert. Some nights they just walked through the park. Some days they portkeyed to London or Paris. Whereas the rest of the family liked the slow pace and calm nature of Wolf Crest, Tommy liked carrying 6 guns, 3 knives, and a wand. He liked the excitement of wearing body armor and having to watch his back as he walked the streets at night. He never made himself a target but if someone tried to mug him he would pull a gun and his BSSI badge. If they still wanted to dance he would kneecap them and drop them off at the office for them to take care of. Every night Tommy would escort Penny back to her room at Wolf Manor by ten they would share a good night kiss before he heading off to the study to talk with his dad.

They would sit and talk about things as they shared a glass of scotch and a small cigar. Most parents would frown on their 15 year old drinking and smoking and Hermione did, but Harry just shrugged. The boy ran a division of B&S. He worked a full day. In fact he worked harder than his father did. He was magical so smoking had no effect on his body. And as long as he drank responsibly Harry didn't care if his boy had one drink before bed after a long day. Boy, that was the last thing you thought of when looking at Tommy now. He was almost six foot tall and thanks to the crossfit workout routine he got from his uncle he was 200 pounds of bulky muscle. He was broad chested with big arms and legs from his long treks through the woods and jungles hunting animals for the meat company. He had a good mustache but his beard was taking it's time coming in. His maturity level never wavered once. He still acted like a 30 year old man most of the time. Harry was just happy his son still took time to talk to him every night.

As September rolled around they moved back to New York. the move fucked with the childrens time clocks and caused a few nights of the crankies but the twins soon settled down. The month was packed with birthdays and Harry liked the challenge of finding new and inventive gifts. But as the month drew to a close Harry looked forward to a different day marked on his calendar. October 19, it was the five year anniversary of their trip back in time. On that night Harry cooked a small feast of chicken tacos for his family and friends. Harry sat as the head of the table that night with a grin on his face. As he looked over the group he felt a warmth in his chest. He came back in time by accident. He landed in a time where almost all of the things he enjoyed were not invented yet. He came back with the only two people that mattered to him and now he had so much more. He had a wife that he loved and that loved him back. He had a son he was so proud of. He had the twins that were his whole world. He had friends. He had a company. He had it all. Sure there were wars, economic depression, and plages on the horizon. But for now, at this moment in time, Harry was happy.


End file.
